Shadow theatre / Pozorište senki

When given an opportunity and freedom to do things their own way, kids always surprise me in a most fantastic way. I had a completely different idea and vision for making the screen for our shadow theatre and puppets that we made the other day. But, the kids couldn't wait for the screen to be made, and they decided to use our decorative paravane instead (that was also once handmade and was used for other purposes). So here is what they made! All by themselves! "The Jungle Book".

This is the backstage. A very busy backstage.

After experimenting with the stage (screen) design and shadows, they turned over to explore the sounds and instruments! The backstage fun was as exciting as the front one!

Puppets for a shadow theatre / Lutkice za pozorište senki

I like these simple ways to extend children's drawings into toys for playing. V loves to draw and loves to play, too.  Here, he drewg with a white pen on black construction paper – the characters from his favourite Jungle book, but then he drew some more animals from the jungle, and from the savana, too.

Veoma volim jednostavne načine da se dečiji crteži pretvore u igračke. V voli da crta i obožava da se igra. Ovde je crtao tankim belim markerom na crnom pastel-papiru likove iz omiljene mu Knjige o džungli, ali onda je dodao još neke životinje iz džungle, a i neke iz savane. 

Aha. Now I see a fox, too. And a puppy. That's the kids way.

Sad vidim da se prošunjala i jedna lisica, a i jedno malo kuče. To je taj dečiji pristup.

After V drew all the characters (and baby Z drew some too - first drawing to the left :), I cut out the drawings and wee fixed them to these wooden sticks.

Nakon što je V nacrtao sve likove (a i beba Z je dala svoj doprinos - prvi crtež levo na fotografiji gore), isekla sam ih po konturi i zajedno smo ih zalepili na drvene štapiće.

And now all thats left is some mini puppet theatre to enjoy before we make a canvas or paper screen for a real shadow theatre play.
Sada je ostalo još da se uživa u mini pozorišnoj predstavi sa papirnim lutkama, pre nego što napravimo paravan za pravo pozorište senki.

New Year's Storytime / Novogodišnje Vreme za priču

This is the poster for our New Year's Storytime in our local library, that was held last saturday. I startedthis storytime programme last year, and until now it's been a success! The most beautiful thing about the whole thing - is a small community of beautiful people - parents and children - that is growing bigger and prittier.
For our New Year's Storytime we had a story Findus at Christmas written by Sven Nordquist. Here are some photos to show the atmosphere.

Ovo je plakat za novogodišnje Vreme za priču, koje je održano prošle subote. Program Vreme za priču je pokrenut prošle godine u dečjoj biblioteci ,,Čika Jova Zmaj" u Beogradu i do sada je imao puno uspeha. Najlepše u celoj ovoj akciji jeste predivna zajednica - roditelja i dece - koja se širi i raste. U okviru novogodišnjeg Vremena za priču ispričana je priča Petson slavi Božić švedskog pisca Svena Nordkvista, a u pripovedanju priče su učestvovali svi - i deca i roditelji. Evo nekoliko fotografija da dočaraju atmosferu.

Storytime / Vreme za priču

Unfortunately, there is no such thing like Storytime or Storytelling in children libraries, here in Serbia. And I so wished that my kids could go to the library and hear a story or a few from time to time, told in a special - storytelling way! You folks, who are reading this post in english, probably know very well what storytime is, and therefore I think no need to explain! 
There is a beautiful small children library near our home that we love to visit often. V loves it, and he is a member since he was 1,5 years old. It has nice toys, nice baby and children books, and a beautiful space in an old house. But no storytime! 
So, I decided to create a storytime programme myself and offer it to the library. They accepted the offer! For the last few months I have been working on this with two of my good friends - Katarina who is a visual artist, and Ivan - who is an actor.
We created six storytime sessions for kids ages 4-6, each of them consisting of few stories. First, we made a selection of stories, Katarina made all the visual props necessary for telling the stories and tales (felt board sets, dolls, overhead transparencies, etc.), and Ivan prepared the stories for telling them! Papa V made some photos and posters, and this is the poster for our first storytime session that was today! 
V was watching and listening the stories with delight, and I was so so happy that this small dream of mine - came true! I shall write more about our stories in the days that come!


Nažalost, u našim bibliotekama ne postoji Pripovedanje priča (engl. Storytelling). Pripovedanje priča  je umetnost pripovedanja priča u kojoj se koriste jezik, zvuk, i/ili fizički pokret i gestikulacija kako bi se pred određenom publikom oživeli i otkrili elementi i slike jedne priče. Kada se priče pripovedaju deci često se koriste i različiti vizuelni predlošci i rekviziti  -  poput slika ili lutaka -  koji pomažu u vizuelizaciji priče. U dečjim bibliotekama širom sveta pripovedanje priča je neizostavni deo redovnih programa namenjenih deci.

V je član dečje biblioteke Čika Jova Zmaj u Hilandarskoj ulici u Beogradu od svoje prve godine. Često je posećujemo i volimo tamo da idemo, jer ima igračaka, knjiga za bebe i decu svih uzrasta a prostor je predivan, smešten u jednoj staroj beogradskoj kući. Ali, nema pripovedanja priča! Zbog toga sam odlučila da sama osmislim i uz pomoć prijatelja realizujem pripovedačke seanse, po uzoru na one koje sam videla u dečjim bibliotekama u Americi I Evropi, koje bih potom ponudila našoj biblioteci. Biblioteka Zmaj je ponudu prihvatila! Poslednjih nekoliko meseci sam radila na pripremanju ovih seansi sa svojim prijateljima Katarinom - umetnicom, i Ivanom - glumcem. Pripremili smo šest pripovedačkih seansi za decu uzrasta od 4-6 godina, a u okviru svake seanse planirano je da se ispriča nekoliko priča. Prvo smo napravili izbor priča prema uzrastu i prema mogućnostima za vizuelno predstavljanje - Katarina je napravila sve vizuelne rekvizite neophodne za pripovedanje, a Ivan je priče pripremio i malo prilagodio za ovu vrstu pripovedanja (storytelling). Tata V je napravio fotografije i plakate a ovo je plakat za našu prvu pripovedačku seansu koja se održala danas!

V je sa oduševljenjem posmatrao i slušao priče, a ja sam presrećna što se jedan moj mali san ostvario! U narednim danima pisaću još o ovom slatkom pripovedanju!

A Teepee and A Few Snakes / Vigvam i nekoliko zmija

Big branches for a teepee... Velike grane za vigvam...

...small branches for little snakes... ... grančice za zmijice...

...some tied scarves for a big snake - Kaa (from The Jungle Book)...

...nekoliko zavezanih marama za veliku zmiju Ka (iz Knjige o džungli)...

...a flying (magic) carpet...  ...jedan leteći ćilim...

...a boy and his imagination... ...dečak i njegova mašta...

Not much is needed for hours and hours of unineterrupted kid's play. And a happy mama.

Nije puno potrebno za sate i sate dečje igre i jednu srećnu mamu.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Made of Clay / Gladna gusenica od gline

In this post I wrote about The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We continued making holes, since that's a very interesting thing for a four-years-old boy to do. This time we used clay. When ever we use clay, we need to knead it first for a few minutes so that it becomes soft and easy to play with. Even just kneading and punching clay with the little fingers is a great activity for kids!


Ovde sam pisala o Gladnoj gusenici. Nastavili smo da pravimo rupice jer je to nešto što veoma zabavlja četvorogodišnjake. Ovoga puta smo koristili glinu. Kad god koristimo glinu, prvo je nekoliko minuta dobro izmesimo kako bi postala meka i spremna za rad. Čak i samo mešenje i gnječenje gline  prstićima je odlična i dovoljna aktivnost za sebe. 

V made a lot of small balls of clay.  He punched holes in each of them with a small stick. Ideally, you should leave the punched clay balls over night to dry and harden (it is much easier to bead hard balls of clay then soft ones), but who can wait?  But, there is the magic: in the attempt to thread the string through a hole of a soft clay ball, the ball kinda squashes a little (?) bit in the hands of a four-years-old! The result? Perfect-imperfect-and-all-different ball-ish pieces!


V je prvo napravio puno glinenih loptica. Probušio je rupu u svakoj od njih pomoću grančice. Pošto je mnogo lakše nizati stvrdnute glinene loptice nego meke, idealno bi bilo da su se probušene loptice odložile (dovoljno je da odstoje na vazduhu preko noći ako loptice nisu prevelike) kako bi se osušile, ali ko bi dočekao? Međutim, upravo se tu krije magija: u pokušaju da se provuče kanap kroz rupicu meke glinene loptice, loptica se donekle spljošti u ručicama četvorogodišnjaka! Rezultat? Savršeni-nesavršeni-i-svi-različiti loptoliki oblici! 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar / Gladna guenica

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a book by Eric Carle, is very popular. We got ours from a very dear friend when V was one. He loved it then, and he still loves it. For those who don't know, the book is about a hungry caterpillar who eats everything in his way. After popping out of an egg on Sunday, the very hungry caterpillar eats holes through the books pages as he eats his way through a variety of foods, beginning with an apple on Monday, two pears on Tuesday and ending with five oranges on Friday and 10 defferent foods on Saturday. The now very fat caterpillar builds a cocoon. After staying in it for two weeks, he nibbles a hole in the cocoon and emerges a beautiful butterfly. Every page in this book has a hole on it where the caterpillar eats through the food, and putting his fingers in the holes is something that V loves the most. 

So, one day, after eating a lot of tangerines, we decided to make our orange caterpillar. We tore the tangerine peels into pieces of approximately same size and then punched a hole in the center of each piece with a paper hole-puncher. V loved this part!

Gladna gusenica, knjiga Erika Karla je veoma popularna u svetu. Mi smo našu dobili od veoma drage prijateljice kad je V imao godinu dana. Svidela mu se tada, i još uvek mu se sviđa. Za one koji ne znaju, ova knjiga je o jednoj gladnoj gusenici koja jede sve na šta naiđe. Nakon što se izlegla iz jajeta u nedelju, gladna gusenica je u ponedeljak pojela jednu jabuku, u utorak - dve kruške, a u petak je pojela pet pomorandži, da bi u subotu pojela čak 10 različitih vrsta hrane (od čokoladne torte do lubenice). Onda je, sada veoma debela gusenica, napravila sebi čauru i nakon dve nedelje iz nje se izlegao prelepi leptir!

Na svakoj stranici knjige nalaze se rupice koje je "progrizla" gusenica jedući svoju hranu. V, naravno, najviše od svega, voli da stavlja svoje prstiće u njih.

Tako smo jednoga dana, nakon što smo se, kao gladna gusenica dobro najeli mandarina, odlučili da napravimo našu narandžastu gusenicu. Sačuvali smo kore od mandarina i iscepkali ih na komade približno iste veličine. Svaki komadić smo u sredini probušili bušačem za rupe. Ovaj deo se V-u najviše dopao!

After that I made a knot at the end of the string so that the pieces do not fall out, and V beaded the pieces on the string. One hole at a time.

And voila! That's it, simple as that!

Potom sam zavezala čvor na jednom kraju kanapa da komadići probušenih kora ne bi spali, a V ih je nanizao provlačeći kanap kroz rupice.

I, eto, to je to!