circuskitchen

Monday, March 14th 2016

To thine own self be true, no?  One example of scintillating adventure for me these days is sleuthing around as a self-ascribed elementary school journalist.  Here is a nibble of my most recently submitted repast for our kids’ school paper (Note that’s my daughter directly below the performer’s outstretched hand there):

PHOTO:  Maggie Whalen shows Children’s House students some of the ways she constructed the set to her production of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears. 

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE THROUGH CHILDREN’S PUPPET THEATRE 

On Monday, March 14th 2016, Maggie Whalen of Magpie Puppet Theatre brought her talents to our Children’s House students.  By singing some sweet songs, Ms. Maggie and the students were able to “wake up” the puppets to perform Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

On a charming set, and with audience participation, Mama, Papa & Baby bear each model healthy activities such as exercise, wholesome cooking, setting the table and making the beds.  And even though Baby Bear doesn’t *like* porridge, Mama Bear teaches him to *pretend* they like it, “because Papa Bear worked hard fixing it for us.”

When the porridge is too hot, the bears go walking in the woods whereupon Goldie Locks –straying from her task of picking blueberries– enters their home uninvited, eats their food, breaks their chair and falls asleep in their bed.   When she awakens to upset bears, she runs back home to her mother.

Importantly, when Mom finds out what happened, she tells Goldilocks that her behavior was inappropriate and you shouldn’t enter people’s homes and help yourself to their things without asking.

“I’m sorry mom,” says Goldilocks.

“I know we all make mistakes,” says the wise Mom, “What’s important is how we fix them.” 

Mom sends Goldilocks back to the Bears’ house to apologize, bring some nice blueberry pancakes they made and to fix the broken chair together.  In the end, they sit down to feast together and Papa Bear sings a final refrain of his bluesy breakfast song with some tasty licks on a tiny guitar.

Afterwards the students were invited to ask some questions, and to see up close how some of the props and set had been constructed.  For example:

Q: Why did Goldilocks go to the bears’ house?  A: She was curious!

Q: Why did Baby Bear say he made the beds all by himself [even though someone helped him]?  A:  I guess he wanted to impress his mother with the good work he did; it was a little lie.

Q: Did Goldilocks make the pancakes for the bears?  A: Yes with her mother, as a gift.

This performance of MagpiePuppets.com was made possible with all our individual contributions through the generous work of Friends of Tobin.  Thank you Friends of Tobin!   Extra special thank you to Sachi Rhodes who helped promote, oversee and stage manage the whole production.

Oh man.  As so often happens when I am ensnared in a vice… a loved one up and encourages me!

*Sigh.*  I started to tell her not to encourage me, but then I thought better… and submitted THIS:

On March 14th (3.14), Head Chef Paul helped us celebrate math with his “Pi” shirt:

Happy Pi Day!

What is “Pi” you ask?   Pi is the value of a circle’s circumference divided by its diameter, which always comes out to 3.14159265358979323846… (the digits go on forever without repeating). This value is represented by the lowercase Greek letter called “pi” that looks like this:  π  

Thanks Chef Paul!  Do you think next year on 3.14 we can do pi math on actual PIE?  Yum!