Help! I Have 90 Firsts Graders Coming!

Partial Cast of The Mitten

Set pieces for Granny Glittens and Her Amazing Mittens

Okay, you're told that 90 first graders are coming and expecting some boffo program as well as a tour of the new library.  They're dividing them in half and taking one half on a tour while you do your fabulous thing.  I've chosen two puppet plays I know I can do by myself (plus a shadow puppet play to "Frosty the Snowman" at the end if there's time).  The first is The Mitten, a cute story where, by the end, the puppets explode out into the audience.  That's almost as much of a crowd-pleaser as squirting them with water at the slightest excuse.  The second is a favorite story from my childhood.  It came from The Tall Book of Christmas Stories and captivated me totally by turning itchy woolen mittens into candy.  I only have to put my hair up, my bifocals back on, and throw on a shawl to be Granny Glittens herself.

The set pieces for Granny Glittens are made from white posterboard (and one piece of corrugated cardboard for the packing box for her new stove) and backed with pieces of paper towel roll to keep them standing up straight.  The balls of yarn are on bamboo skewers.  I pop a white ball of yarn in the pot on the stove ... and out comes one by one: a red one, a green one, a brown one, a yellow one, and a black one.  I've heard gasps of amazement from 4 year olds.  First graders might be a bit more jaded.

Don't they wonder about the size of the stove relative to the human being? you ask.  What, you haven't heard of suspension of disbelief?