A dog, a horse, a pig, a couple of snakes, several baby chicks and even a dinosaur attended summer camp at Cleveland Elementary School.
The animals were not provided by a farm or zoo, but by two volunteers with Lawton Community Theatre (LCT) as part of a puppet show. Martha McCartney and Marsha Thomas, long-time volunteers, taught students how to respect puppets and explained their purpose.
“We want them to pick a puppet and then to join the story,” McCartney said. “Puppets allow children who are very shy to speak because that isn’t their voice.”
After a short talk on puppet care — they aren’t for fighting but they are meant to tell a story — the second graders were allowed to choose some puppets to play with.
Luca Rohner chose a snake, which he wrapped around his neck and shoulders.
“I think it is a poisonous snake,” he said as he looked at its head. “I love snakes.” He said snakes probably would play into a “wild” story.
Dom-Michael Avery chose a dinosaur puppet “because I love dinosaurs. They are spiky and have sharp teeth and they are cool.”
very said he had played with puppets before at another summer camp.
“I like that they can talk and all that stuff. We can make them talk,” he said.
Isabella Zoe said she chose cat and pig puppets, which she said could be used in a story about a farm.
“At first, they didn’t get along, but now they do,” she said as she explained her storyline.
Fiona Holden was drawn to an armadillo and a shark because the armadillo “has a strong shell and a shark because it is a fast swimmer. I like how you can make them talk and tell stories with them.”
Once the campers tried out some puppets, McCartney and Thomas selected a few that would be found on a farm — hence the pig, horse, baby chicks, lamb, frog and snakes — and the students acted out the story of “The Little Red Hen” who does everything while all the other animals sleep.
No one wants to help her do the chores or plant or harvest the grains of wheat she finds. Each group of puppets says “Not I” when the red hen asks if they want to help.
When she asks if they want to help eat the cake she makes from the wheat she has milled into flour, all the animal puppets eagerly answer, “I do”, but the red hen decides since no one helped her with the planting and harvesting, that she would eat all the cake.
Thomas and McCartney presented the puppet show to each grade level at Adventure Academy at Cleveland Elementary. Later this summer, they will conduct a camp for secondary students, who will have the opportunity to write their own script.