In Poetic Puppets, third, fourth, and fifth grade students will bring haiku poetry to life using shadow puppets. Day One of this residency centers on student selection of an image from an array of provided choices and creation of a shadow puppet of that image using an artist-provided template. Matt is able to customize these templates so that the puppet tempates connect to either upcoming or recently-completed lesson units (past examples include: Greek mythology, saltwater biomes, NC native animals). On Day Two, students learn about the history and key elements of haiku (i.e., poems with three lines that have a sequence of 5, 7, and 5 syllables), and generate word lists of nouns, adjectives, and verbs related to the puppet they chose to create on the previous day. Day Three sees students learning about figurative language (specifically, tricks for creating similes) and then using their previously generated word list to write their own individual haiku. On Day Four, Matt teaches students to hone their haiku performance by using volume and pitch to create a dynamic poetry recitation. Then each student takes a turn presenting their haiku to the class while manipulating their shadow puppet from Day One. On the final day of the residency, students will experience Shadow Lab, a series of interactive hands-on learning stations that teach the art and science of light and shadow. Shadow Lab includes five stations which students move through at their own pace. Students have the opportunity to make additional shadow puppets using provided materials, manipulate pre-made puppets on shadow screens, make their own bodies into shadow puppets, create puppets using light instead of shadows, or move shadows by manipulating the location of the light source.

Artist Background

“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people,” is one of the guiding principles behind Matt Sandbank’s work. With his hilarious and educational shadow puppetry programs, Matt has been touring to schools, libraries, museums, and festivals since 2009. As a former middle school educator and as a graduate of UNC-Asheville’s creative writing program, Matt has a deep passion for teaching young people about the joy and possibilities of the written word. Matt’s work has been supported in part by the Rufus Rose Endowment Fund. His performances have been featured at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival (2022), the Puppeteers of America National Festival (2019), the San Antonio International Children’s Puppetry Festival (2015, 2016, and 2017), and the Nashville International Puppet Festival (2013).

Search Criteria

• Program Type: Workshop/Residency
• Discipline: Literary, Multi-Disciplinary, Theatre
• Grade Level: Elementary
• Cultural Context: Asian
• Accepts bookings in Johnston County