THE COLOURED HEN

Yesterday, at class, we were working with computers, with different programs to record your voice, or for making videos etc. 

Like an activity we had to record with our voices a story that was based on a picture that we chose, Nazaret and me, invent a story about this het ( the picture is of MIRÓ): 

"Once upon a time there was a hen. But not a normal hen. It has a lot of coloured feathers. It was the most beautiful hen in all the farm. 

The others animals admired it. All of them wanted to play with the coloured hen, but it was refused the proposal.

One day, the dog Tim said:

-        Can you give me one of your feathers?

-        No, no way, it is only mine

Since this moment, all animals, did not want to play with it. For these reason, the coloured hen was sad, very sad. It was the solitary animal in the farm.

It decided to talk with the clever bird:

-        Hello, I am very sad because the others don’t want to play with me.

-        Maybe, you can share your beautiful feathers with others.

So the following day the hen went with the rest of the animals and it gave them its feathers.

It only stayed with  one beautiful feather but it was the most happy animal in this farm!"

It was very funny because we had to do the different sounds of the animals, but finally we get record it.

On my point of view, the class was interesting because we learned different programs to work with children, and now a days, it is very important because children are very used to work with computers and new technology, so this is an amazing form to work for them.

FALLAS

This week in Valencia, my home town, have been "Las Fallas".  
These are some typical festivals for many years, held only in Valencia. Consist in that throughout the year, falleros' artists, prepare a giant monuments, and the last day of the festivities, they burn.
 
This festival has become a major tourist attraction, as they are classified as International Tourist Interest.

 

THE MONUMENTS
 
They usually have satirical current affairs. "Las Fallas" usually consist of a central figure or composition several meters high, the largest over 30 meters, surrounded by numerous figures of cardboard, polyurethane (material in recent years is being replaced by more modern as polystyrene expanded, lighter and moldable), supported by a wooden frame. Include signs written in Valencian explaining the meaning of each scenery, always with a critical and satirical.

 

During these days, the falleras wear the typical costume:

From my point of view, this can be called art, because they are huge monuments, which cost much time to make, and are made with all the necessary details. I think it's a shame that the work of a whole year get fire, but it's a tradition, and the traditional festivals of Valencia.

SPANISH PUPPETS

As in the previous class, we were working with puppets, I would like to show a kind of puppets that are quite typical in Spain.

In particular, there are two very famous people, who are dedicated to acting with puppets. In the following video, you can see what they do.Is very interesting to see how they do it because they must change the voice many times and also try not to notice them much.

 

Besides this, like here in Ghent is famous "Pierke Pierlala", in Spain, there are something similar "Giants and big heads."  
Giants are handled by people from within, which make it likely to move and dance to music.
The big heads, are people dressed carrying a very large head, and running after children.

 

PUPPETS

The other day, at class, we were working with different materials, like paper mache, clay, and Wayang. 

To produce your own puppil, you have to follow some steps: 

1. Prepare the paper mache with everything you need: 

2. When the paper mache is dry, and compact, you have to take a piece of cardboard, a small ball, and paste it, to give shape to the puppet. Once done, you should choose the figure you want to do and put the mass of paper mache you need. Once molded, the figure, have to let to dry for at least 24 hours.

3. As it dries, you can sew the costume to put the puppet, for don't see the cardboard. In my case, I chose green cloth and I gave him a very simple way, because I don't know sew well.

 






















4. After that, when your puppil dry, you can colour it as you want.  

5. And for finish it, you put the dress, and it's ready to play!! 

Besides this, we worked with clay, giving enough importance to the imagination, because the teacher said a theme or a word, and we had to create something related to this.

And finally,we create , by group, our own characters Wayang style, which, I had never heard of. At first it was quite difficult having to draw them because we were not sure how to do it, but finally this was the result:

 REFLECTION:
This class has allowed me to learn new ways to work the theme of puppetry with the pupils. I think the materials we used, are not typical, at least in Spain, used to make puppets. As for processing, if children are very young, they would need help from an adult, but if students are already primary school, I think they can make their own puppets handedly.
 
I find it quite interesting that playing with puppets, since students can imagine and create their own characters and give them life in addition to these.
This session I really liked and enjoyed creating my puppet and group working on a new style of characters such as Wayang.

Andrea Pérez