I had a couple of weeks off from story times after the holidays, and I chose Eugene Field’s poem, The Duel, for my first Movement & Music program.
I love the Janet Street’s illustrations for The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat, but I managed to leave the book behind that day.
However, the story is ripe for dramatization, so I did a quick Google image search for gingham and calico fabric, a Chinese plate, and a Dutch clock.
I cut out the dog and cat, an attached a construction paper window and the old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate to the flannelboard.
I printed out an extra sheet of the gingham and calico images, and cut them up in little pieces.
During the fight, I had the impromptu puppets falling down behind the hassock that forms the front of the stage, and one or the other would occasionally fly up into view along with shreds of gingham and calico paper.
The kids (and their parents) loved it!
