author • illustrator • arts integration specialist • puppeteer
WHAT SUMMER IS ALL ABOUT!
Exploring! Wondering! Trying something new! That’s my plan, anyway: in the studio playing with words and images, and some very cool projects on the road.
See below!
THE ODYSSEY SET IN THE GULF OF MEXICO
At the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, MS, I combined Sense of Place with classic literature in a week long camp. Fourth and fifth graders studied the travails of Odysseus along with maps of the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico to create their own brilliant adaptation set in the modern day Gulf, using shadow puppets on the overhead projector and sound effects. They also created paper mosaics inspired by the work of Walter Anderson, and weaving - both arts practiced by the ancient Greeks. This was so much fun I brought the cardboard boat I had planned to leave in a recycle bin in Ocean Springs, back home and can’t wait to find a place to do the project again!
COMING LATER IN JULY:
Collected folk tales from Zora Neale Hurston brought to life through puppetry at the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Arkansas! And live Blues music!!!
The Snowmen left on an Arctic vacation.
School Library Journal review: “The rhyming text catches the beat of both groups and will have readers eager to try out their own march or waltz moves, as well as read the story again!”
Calliope Kate loves inspiring new tall tales in writing workshops for kids!
A rollicking tall tale heroine tames the Mississippi River, rides a giant catfish, and finds her voice in the raucous steamboat calliope in a picture book illustrated with hand carved marionettes.
PUPPETRY FOR LEARNING!
Classroom developed and classroom ready lessons across the curriculum are fun and engaging for all as kids dive into the subject area - to bring learning to life with puppetry!