Cool After School: Optical Illusions

by Vicky on February 15, 2011

Our Cool After School program on January 19 featured optical illusions from the fabulous book, Eye-Popping Optical Illusions, by Michael DiSpezio.

We made phenakistoscopes, and experimented with creating our own animations.

A phenokistoscope is an early animation device invented in 1832 by the Belgian physicist, Joseph Plateau.

It consists of a spinning disk and a mirror. The disk is slotted and has images on the side facing the mirror.

Looking through the slots at images reflected in the mirror as the disk spins gives the effect of moving pictures.  For some cool examples, check out the Teach Animation site!

We also made a monster with eyes that seemed to follow your every move. Note the matching fangs on this pair!

Younger kids had trouble focusing through the slots on the images reflected in the mirror, and could not see the animation.

But everyone could see the illusion of the monster’s moving eyes (which were on a separate piece of paper attached in such a way that the eyes on the loop of paper were viewed through the eye openings on the face of the monster).

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I (heart) Origami Jewelry

by Vicky on January 18, 2011

On Saturday, I co-taught another origami jewelry workshop at the library with Dawn and Brian Jackson of the Albuquerque Origami Society.  We made origami heart earrings and barrettes.  With participants (of both sexes!) ranging in age from middle school to elderly, I was a bit worried about how everyone would handle folding the miniature hearts—but all of the earrings or barrettes turned out beautifully!

I think it was the most successful origami jewelry class so far!

In fact, since a number of other people expressed interest in the class but were unable to come on Saturday, we have decided to repeat the workshop on Tuesday, February 8, from 4-6 p.m.

See how well the origami jewelry turned out?  Come to the next workshop to make some special gifts in time for Valentine’s Day!

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Zoom Away

by Vicky on January 18, 2011

Zoom Away is the second book in the enchanting Zoom Trilogy, by Tim Wynne-Jones and illustrated by Eric Beddows.  This book won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award (1986), which is awarded to an outstanding illustrator of a children’s book published in Canada.

I projected large images from the book and read the story with the help of my puppet, Zoom, who chimed in with lots of comments and additional details.

Zoom is summoned by his friend, Maria, to accompany her to search for his elusive Uncle Roy.  “Dress warmly!” she tells him.

She shows him a map of the North Pole and, as they climb the increasingly snow-covered stairs in her magical house, Zoom straps on his ping-pong paddle snowshoes.  As they go down a long wintry hallway lined with monumental Snowmen, they can hear wolves howling, and Maria suggests that they sing a little song.  Eventually they come to a tiny door marked “Northwest Passage” and Maria tells Zoom that she will meet him on the other side.

After toiling through a long, scary tunnel, Zoom emerges into brilliant sunshine at the ice-covered North Pole.  After ice skating for a while, he begins to explore.  He notices a distant ship frozen in the ice, and, looking closer with his spyglass, he makes out the name of the ship: The Catship.  It’s his Uncle Roy’s ship!

Zoom goes to investigate, and soon he discovers a note from his Uncle Roy.  He and his crew have gotten away to warmer climes, but he will be back to retrieve his ship.  Zoom is disappointed that he has once again missed meeting his Uncle Roy, but Roy has left him his captain’s whistle, and Maria appears to take him home.

We had a large group, which included a number of visually impaired children and their teachers (who came unannounced).  Fortunately our snowman bodi-puppets were perfect, with their simple circle and cone shapes and different textures (construction paper (hat, eyes, and nose), poster board (body), paper plate (head) felt (scarf and mittens), and foam wrap (arms).

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Cool After School: Hello, Fruit Face!

by Vicky on January 18, 2011

For my first Cool After School program after my holiday break, I featured the book, Hello, Fruit Face! The Paintings of Arcimboldo, by Claudia Strand.

The kids really liked the grotesque portraits composed of fruits, vegetables, and other materials.  I showed them Arcimboldo’s portrait of a librarian at the court of Rudolf II…

…and of course I could not resist showing off the edible version of The Statue of Liberty that I made quite a long time ago.

For the class, I had printed out images of various vegetables, and the kids (and at least one of the parents!) had a blast composing their grotesque self-portraits.

They came up with highly individual ideas, including pop-up elements.

I was impressed with the results!

I discovered that an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art had just closed a few days before this class.  Arcimboldo, 1526–1593: Nature and Fantasy will next be on view at the Palazzo Reale, Milan, January 27–May 8, 2011.  It features a monumental sculpture by Philip Haas of Arcimboldo’s portrait, Winter.

You can get a better idea of the scale of this monumental sculpture from this video:

For more about Arcimboldo, watch this short video from Smithsonian Magazine:

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The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat

by Vicky on January 18, 2011

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!

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Page Presents…The Nutcracker!

by Vicky on December 28, 2010

Linda and I had planned to repeat our Solstice concert (music and storytelling) for the Christmas Eve edition of Page Presents.  But right after our concert, she had a brainstorm…

We should do The Nutcracker!  As a puppet show!  Then she sent me this email:

I can take care of the music.  Should be fun!  I know you can pull this off.  Hope your weekend is restful.

This caused me to laugh hysterically.  But—mysteriously—we did somehow pull it off.  And we even had a big audience to witness this miracle!

My roles were storyteller, puppeteer, and also Godmother Drosselmeyer.

In our version of the story, Godmother Drosselmeyer presents a special present for the Stahlbaum children and their guests: a wonderful puppet show!

We brought my childhood puppet theatre to the library, and that really did add to the magic!

The unicorn puppets performed a twining, sinuous dance to the Arabian Dance music, which we moved from its normal position in the ballet.

We also added some other seasonal music, since Linda’s harp arrangement did not include much of the music from Act I.  Linda played The Holly and the Ivy for the decorating and lighting of the Christmas tree, and the Wexford Carol for the arrival of the guests.

She played Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day for the arrival of Godmother Drosselmeyer and the distribution of presents.

We used the March for the magical growth of the Christmas tree and battle between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

My husband Stuart engineered the Christmas tree special effect, which was stunning.  The beautiful tree grew from large…

…like this—

…and it grew…

…and it grew…

..and it grew…

…and it grew…

…and it grew some more..

…until it became colossal…like this!

It was pure magic.

Then Linda donned her crown.  She was the Sugar Plum Fairy!

She welcomed everyone to the Kingdom of Sweets, and invited everyone to enjoy the entertainments she had planned in honor of the Prince’s victorious return.

In our version, these included the Russian Dance (with Father Christmas and a Russian Bear)—

the Chinese Dance (with a willow ware teapot and dancing tea bags)—

and the Waltz of the Flowers (the finale with the entire audience dancing with garlands of candy flowers).

Our page, Pauline, had given me a big bag of Tootsie Pop Miniatures after Halloween, but I knew that the parents would kill me, so I put them aside for another occasion. 

What could be more perfect to transform into candy flowers?

I passed out the garlands…

…and the children were delighted to dance with them!

When the dance was finished, I cut the garlands apart and added the flower candies to tiny treat bags of candy.

(Letitia, one of the mothers, had donated these miniature paper bags a couple of months ago, and I’ve already used them for several crafts.)

I taped a Nutcracker cut from an old paper garland to each mini-bag, and filled them with Tootsie Pop Miniatures, miniature candy canes, and peppermint and cinnamon hard candies.

The kids were thrilled to receive their special treats!

What a marvelous time we all had in the Kingdom of Sweets!

…So tell me—

Did it really happen?

Or was it just a beautiful dream?

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Cool After School: Winter Solstice

by Vicky on December 27, 2010

For our Cool After School program the day after the winter solstice, I read Lucia and the Light, by Phyllis Root and illustrated by Mary Grandpré.

It’s a new story, told in the style of a folk tale.  I introduced it by telling the children how the sun seems to rise farther and farther to the north as the days shorten, and people in the far north feared that the sun would finally disappear, taking away all its light and warmth. The solstices mark the two points in the year when the sun seems to stop moving, rising in the same position for a couple of days before beginning to move back in the opposite direction.

I told them that when I lived much farther north, the days began lengthening noticeably right after the winter solstice, a welcome reassurance that spring would eventually arrive.

Lucia lives in a cabin in the far North with her mother and her baby brother, their cow, and her milk-white cat.  One winter, the sun completely disappears, and Lucia goes on a quest (accompanied by the milk-white cat) to find it.

After the story, we made origami sun wheels.

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Library Magic

by Vicky on December 19, 2010

The magic of the season arrived with a flourish this week!

We had the first snow of the winter at our house on Beethoven’s birthday.

I was up late making a Tomten puppet, and it was easy to imagine a tomten making little footprints in the silent snow outside our frosty window.

The next day, the children loved wearing their Tomten masks, and they delighted everyone who was lucky enough to see the little gnomes tiptoeing through the library.

On Saturday, Linda and I had our final concert (of three!) this week, and we had an amazing crowd of over 60 people crammed into the children’s library.

I was ecstatic to see so many parents and kids from the community in attendance.  Linda and I played our best, and it was thrilling to feel the current of warmth flowing from the audience.

I told my own holiday version of “The Button.”  It includes Mouse Children who come Yule caroling in the winter, Maying in the spring, and playing Button Button, Who Has the Button? in the fall.

When we were making the Mouse masks, I had asked parents if they thought their children might like to have a part in our holiday concert.  But of course it’s hard to know how children will feel about things when faced with an audience, so I was prepared to tell my story without the participation of Mouse Children.

Imagine, then, my joy when a number of children arrived carrying their Mouse masks!

And there were many eager volunteers for the three extra masks I had with me!

Finally, thanks to my friend Bob Kanegis, I had the perfect opening for my story of Simple Gifts—the Global Heart Warming ritual that he invented.

But it would be best for you to hear more about that from the master storyteller himself:

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The Tomten

by Vicky on December 19, 2010

The Tomten, by Astrid Lindgren and illustrated by Harald Wiberg, was the featured book for this week’s Page Presents class.

I love it.  It’s a quiet, magical tale from Sweden about a tomten (gnome) who watches over a farm and its inhabitants at night.

It is not a Christmas story, but the Tompten’s red hat and white beard—and the wintry setting—make it feel right for the season.

The Tomten’s gentle way of caring for all the creatures of the farm serves as an antidote to the frantic consumerism of the holidays.

Quiet magic.  We could all use more of that in our lives.

On a bitterly cold winter night, everyone is sleeping.  All but one.  The Tomten goes from building to building on his silent little feet, making footprints in the snow.  He visits the cows, the horse, the sheep, and the chickens, and he speaks to them in tomten language, a silent little language that the animals can understand.  He comforts them with the affirmation that:

Winters come and winters go,
Summers come and summers go…

and reassures them that warm weather will soon return.

Then he visits Caro the dog, who looks forward to nightly visits from his friend.  The Tomten sees that Caro is cold, and he brings more straw to tuck him in so he can sleep.

Then the Tomten goes into the house and visits the sleeping parents and children.  He gazes at the children and thinks, “If they would only wake up, I would talk to them in tomten language, a silent little language that children can understand.  But they are always asleep.”  The Tomten is a very old tomten, who has lived at the farm for generations.  But none of the humans has ever seen him.

In my version of the story, the Tomten also opens up a book and visits his friend, Page the Bookworm.  In his silent little language that bookworms can understand, the Tomten tells Page:

Winters come and winters go
But people will always need stories.

Finally the Tomten goes back to his warm corner of the hayloft.  The cat is waiting for him, hoping for some milk.  In his silent little language that cats can understand, he says:

Of course you can stay with me, and of course I will give you milk.

And everyone settles into a deep and peaceful sleep in the winter night.  All but one, who is watching to make sure that all is well.

Afterwards, the kids made Tomten masks.  Since they are still rather small people, they made the library seem like quite a magical place!

Mr. Matt translated the Swedish children’s Christmas song, Tomtarnas Julnatt, and then taught us a simpler version.  The little tomtar feast upon the goodies that have been left out for them on Christmas night.  We sang all the verses and tiptoed in a circle, pretending to be tomtar making our rounds on a cold winter night.

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Happy 240th Birthday, Beethoven!

by Vicky on December 16, 2010

My husband Stuart was reading Beethoven’s Hair: An Extraordinary Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved, by Russell Martin. (And raving about it, too, by the way.)  It is an extraordinary tale, and I’m dying to read it now.

Beethoven’s hair survived for DNA testing because it was well sealed in a frame by one of its owners, and then it narrowly survived incineration by the Nazis.  DNA and physical analysis of the hair revealed much about Beethoven’s physical condition, thus answering many questions that have persisted since his death.

Anyway, he (Stuart) needed a haircut, but he wanted me to take a photo of him with the book first.  That’s when we discovered that Stuart is Ludwig’s Doppelgänger.

Then he decided that he didn’t want a haircut after all.

Long before Facebook, with its birthday reminders, all of my musician friends tended to remember my birthday, because it’s close to Beethoven’s.  So I would get lots of birthday greetings on Beethoven’s birthday, December 16th.  As a matter of fact, my birthday was yesterday, the 15th, and I was lucky enough to be playing concerts Tuesday and yesterday…along with another one coming up on Saturday.

I told my musical partner, Linda, that getting to play music with her is the best birthday present I could wish for.

I love the way my latest READ poster turned out, and this is a good time of year to be reminded of Beethoven’s prediction in his Ninth Symphony: Alle Menschen werden Brüder (All mankind become brothers).

This December, that prediction feels just as far distant as it must have seemed to Beethoven in 1824 when he penned these words for his final complete symphony.

But Beethoven’s music—and Music itself—will always keep the hope alive.

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