As a class we chose the medium of sock puppets to present our project. To create our sock puppets, we reused socks and recyclable items. To build our puppets we used a hot glue gun, cardboard, paper straws, tinfoil, googly eyes, feathers, felt, rubber bands, pipe cleaners, recycled plastic bottles, other reusable materials, and paint. Our puppets were designed to represent various animals in the Nashwaak Watershed.
Our inspiration came from a class presentation by Francis Morgan from the Nashwaak Watershed Association. Francie talked about the watershed, habitats and animals that live within the area. We learned about food chains, global warming, and the impacts of climate change.
We decided to create sock puppets and make a video of our learning. We invited Sharisse LeBrun from Theatre New Brunswick to come work with us to learn about puppetry.
We had some challenges creating our puppets and videos. We worked hard writing our script to outline details for our animal habitat and any impact from climate change. Our green screen was a challenge. It was difficult to replicate our animal, as a puppet, to an exact match, but we did our best. To support each other, we worked in small groups while researching and writing our scripts, and we also practiced together. We did a lot of edits, rewrites and studying before video recording. As small groups we watched our video back, did some edits before completing the final copy.
Our message from our project is to become more environmentally aware, reduce, reuse, and recycle, so that we minimize our impact on our environment, on animal habitats and to lessen our impact on climate change. We learned that everyone can do ONE small thing to help slow climate change… PLANT A TREE!
This May, our grade 4 class at Nashwaak Valley School will be planting 45 trees with help from the Nashwaak Watershed Association. We will be managing and maintaining our trees that we plant and will become environmental stewards.
~ Nashwaak Valley Grade 4 Class