Our school drama production was this week!
My friend does the most amazing job on this.
Remember! We are a Spanish Immersion School!
That means that the whole play needs to be written and performed in Spanish!
Kim does this every year and it is absolutely wonderful!

This year’s production is 4 versions of “Los Tres Cerditos” (or if you don’t speak Spanish….The 3 Little Pigs)

WARNING!…..you will have to read some of my “educational philosophy” before you get to the TUTU….but this post is really about TUTUS!

What a wonderful breath of fresh air this production is in our normal routine of “high stakes testing”, “teaching to the test” and almost constant “drill, practice and drill some more”!

I can’t think of a better way for kids to gain “real world skills” than to PUT ON A SHOW!

• Reading (of course) when they learn the script!
• Writing….making signs and taking notes!
• Problem solving!
• Presentation skills!
• Team work and collaboration skills and how to count on your team!
• How to listen to feedback and improve by using that feed back!
• Perseverance and follow through!

And it is FUN!

There is no doubt that teaching this way is a lot more work for the teacher….but it is such an amazing thing to see young people engaged, involved and successful….

HMMMM….I am thinking that is why most teachers go into the profession!

Now….what does this have to do with TUTU’s?

Kim asked me to make tutus for one Three of the little Pigs…(really darling 5th grade girls)

I was going to go home and do that…..

then I remembered reading this post from SKIP TO MY LOU about how to make a no sew version!

AHA!  EUREKA!

THESE GIRLS COULD DO THIS!

So off to the fabric store for 6 yards of pink tulle (on sale for $1.39 a yard).

Into the sewing closet for 3 yards of 1 1/2 inch wide elastic.

Into the ribbon stash for a reel of pink curling ribbon (every pig needs a curly tail for goodness sakes)

The girls were happy to miss recess for a couple of days….hey wouldn’t you miss recess if you could make a tutu?  

I cut the tulle into 2 inch wide strips…

I cut the elastic to size…

The girls tied the tulle strips on the elastic while I curled the ribbon (funny but curling the ribbon was the hardest part of the whole project! )

When all the tulle was tied on, I took the tutus home to sew a strong seam to join the ends of the elastic.  

I knew that these babies would take some beating during all the rehearsals and performances…It would be a disaster to have a tutu-less piggie running around on stage for heaven’s sake!

And HERE they are!

 Just TOO Cute!

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I am sending you back to the “Real” tutorial for good directions to do this…I was too busy DOING….to do a tutorial!  SKIP TO MY LOU No Sew Tutu Tutorial

Now back to more of my “educational philosophy”!

Best Practice articles are always touting the need to “build relationships” with students!

While we were creating the tutus….there were lots of people (kids and adults) stopping by to share in the fun!  

I love the fact that I almost never have to deal with “behavior issues” with my “big kids” in the Media Center…..

Do you think that maybe projects like this one have something to do with THAT?

HMMMMM!

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