Iron Man primary school residency

In February I had an intense week in a primary school making two puppets based on characters from Ted Hughes' children's book, Iron Man. Having little experience of working with primary school age groups it was a steep learning curve. What unbridled creativity. What quick, furiously sure-minded assertions of preference and choice! What brevity of concentration spans and constant thirst for new creative challenges!
When I had finally learnt how to harness these qualities to fruitful ends, we developed a hub of puppet-making productivity with our 2D hinged dragon puppet and hulking 3D iron man. It was a tricky but deeply rewarding challenge to figure out how to engage groups of 10 children simultaneously in the puppet-making process, but soon we were marvelling at the unique dragon scales and elaborately decorated dragon tassles being created.

Cardboard, without a shadow of a doubt, remains my most faithful companion.