The shape of you the shape of me...

My eldest daughter told me the other day that she wants to read all of our Dr. Seuss books. I think we have about 50 Dr. Seuss books, so I think her idea is fantastic. I love Dr. Seuss. You might remember that Wacky Wednesday inspired our April Fool's day antics. There are a few titles that I love most of all. My childhood was filled with these books. The images are so fantastical and the rythym of the text is so lyrical...they truly are magical books.

"The Shape of Me and Other Stuff" is one of my favourites. If you aren't familiar with this book it is filled with silouettes of every variety of object and creature. The book begins with "The shape of you, the shape of me, the shape of everything we see." The words inspired me to introduce my daughter's to another magical art form, Japanese shadow puppets.

I remember being introduced to shadow puppets in my art history class in university. Have a look at this video to see a short modern production using this ancient craft. My daughter's loved the idea. So, we decided to make our own shadow puppets.

Using construction paper, brass brads and skewers we drew and cut out our shapes.

The brads allow our creatures to be animated. We taped the skewers strategically, for maximum movement of limbs, tails and fins.

That night I set up a shadow puppet show for my girls. I simply suspended a white table cloth between my daughter's bed and dresser. I placed a table lamp on the floor, projecting the light onto the cloth. Making sure to turn out all other lights, the show began. The girls took their seats on the bedroom floor and watched as their puppets came to life.