Creative Mela – Puppet making workshop

Creative Mela is a yearly event, where all the kids from the school, select the workshops of their interest and attend them. This year I had volunteered for organizing  one workshop for the Creative Mela. I was selected for talking workshops for grade 3 and 4. Before the the event I had to go to some of the classes and collect data as to which workshop as prefered by each and every kid. It was a very tedious job and I had to miss my free slot, but I managed to fulfill that duty. This process was really time consuming and explaining kids about the whole event and the activities available was repetitive as I went in almost 5 to 6 classes.  I was assigned to take the puppet making workshop. This was quite new for me, as I have never really shown interest in puppet making. So before teaching the kids about puppet making, I had to go through some tutorials and learn in myself first.

There were few meeting before the event, which I did regularly attend and due to some reason I had to take the workshop alone. Now that was a challenging task. At first the idea of handling those kids alone seemed very difficult to me. Additional, I did not actually try puppet making before and was not good at it, so I had to make sure I learn something worthy and can pass on the same to the kids. I was baffled at the beginning as to what will I teach and how will I manage, I thought of asking for help , but didn’t. Then I planned what all materials will I be needing and how will I be taking the workshop. This made my task easier.

When I entered the class on the day of the event, I saw there was a lot of material present over there. I checked everything and made sure that  all the materials are present and segregated them according. The moment the kids entered, I got confused, as to how should I begin. I took a deep breath and welcomed them first. They settled quickly and then I began the workshop. The kids were quiet and focusing on what I was telling them. It was not as difficult as I imagined. Gradually it became easy to handle the kids. I divided them into two groups and material accordingly, this way everything was in a smooth flow. However, it was hard to manage the doubts of each and every child, but I did manage that to some extend. It was a two hour workshop , I felt tiring at times but when I saw the kids so captivated in what they were doing it boosted me too.

There were about 10 to 15 kids. I had to be fair with everyone, so I divided the time of the workshop accordingly. I listened to what the kids wanted to do and gave them the resources accordingly. Each kid was given the same amount of material and time. I was catering to all the doubts chance by chance and keeping an eye on all the kids. I did taught them appropriately. At time I felt like screaming or just take away the materials and make the puppets for them myself, but I controlled my feeling and projected an appropriate behaviour.  This was a really nice experience, there was a lot that I learned from the kids. It felt good to teach them and help the kids. I felt proud of myself at the end of the session. According to me, I managed the kids very well and all the kids did a very productive job. We all made sure we did not waste any resources and so we collected all the waste and the remaining resources and kept it at their respective places. In fact, we were done with out session 10 minutes early and had time to review on all the puppets that the kids made. I was a very exciting and a fun session with them.