HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center Puppet Project Blog 12 10/28/2021

 

HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center

HOME Project

Blog 12 10/28/2021

We introduced our new project today but faced an interesting dilemma. In today’s class, students learnt how to make miniature house mobiles, but Spica was unable to find a Mandarin word for mobile.  The closest translation she found was a kinetic sculpture. We never stop learning when we are working with our seniors! 

Because we are balancing miniature houses on a rod, we warmed up with a physical balance exercise. Our seniors stood on one leg and then the other, making sure they had a solid structure to hold on to if needed. All of our seniors keep fit with regular forms of exercise and stretching, so for many this was part of their morning routine. Next, we took some yoga poses as we breathed deeply, and finally just for fun we tried balancing a book on our head as we moved across the room or in a circle. 

To give our students a reference to the mobile sculpture as art, we shared the work of Alexander Calder, Bruno Munari and Man Ray, as well as examples of wind chime mobiles and those that hang above a baby’s playset. 

Spica and I shared examples of our miniature mobile houses as well as our Book of Home, which is the inspiration for this project. We discussed the elements of a house, such as the door, roof, windows, walls and shapes, textures, and structure. Making a mockup is an important tool in learning a new technique so students used the template supplied in their material pack and cut, folded, and glued a roof with a pitched roof, with French doors and another with a flat roof and single opening front door. 

To keep their template, they traced it onto white cardstock and then cut it out. Next, they chose textured paper and glued that to the cardstock, carefully cutting out the windows and doors. Our students were so focused on this activity that we didn’t realize it was noon and the end of class. Next week we will work on completing both houses and creating our mobile.


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