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Past Times History

Resources and Activities to Make History Come Alive

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  • Inside of a shadow puppetry screen with puppets from the story of Henry Box Brown

    How to

    How to make a portable shadow screen for classrooms

    March 11, 2019July 12, 2019

    So far I have posted instructions for desk top shadow puppetry screens (made of a box or a tri-fold presentation board), as well as larger screens to use with overhead projectors. Over the last weeks I

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  • Shadow puppet of Martin Luther King

    How to

    How to Make a Puppet of a Historical Figure: Martin Luther King

    February 7, 2019July 13, 2019

    During Black History Month our shadow puppetry tutorials feature important figures in African-American history. Today we will be honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King and showing you how to make a shadow puppet

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  • Shadow puppet of Sojourner Truth speech

    Black history

    Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I A Woman: Teaching History with Shadow Puppets

    February 1, 2019August 27, 2020

    In my last post I shared how to make a front-facing shadow puppet of Aretha Franklin that can sing. In this post I will show you how to make a side-facing puppet of the celebrated

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  • Past Times Nativity — Free Christmas Printable DIY!

    Bible stories

    How to Host a DIY Nativity Shadow Puppetry Show

    December 5, 2018November 29, 2020

    Hi all! My name is Sara, and I’m the daughter of Helene, the creator of Past Times. My mom has spent years of her life pouring love and creativity into shadow puppetry, a story-telling medium

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  • Greek mythology

    Using an Overhead Projector for Shadow Puppetry

    December 2, 2018May 24, 2021

    If you are doing a shadow puppetry performance for larger audiences, using an overhead projector as the light source has several advantages. The light is stronger than traditional lamps and is distributed more evenly over

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  • foam board portable screen showing boy and girl puppet

    How to

    Using a Tri-fold Presentation Board for a Durable Screen

    November 26, 2018October 30, 2021

    If you are thinking of doing shadow puppetry more than a handful of times you may want  to invest in a durable frame that can be stored easily and will withstand stains and humidity. One

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  • shadow puppets measuring a cardboard box theater

    How to

    How to Make a Shadow Puppet Theater from a Box

    November 25, 2018July 16, 2019

    If you want to use a box as your shadow puppet theater, the size of the screen will depend on the size of the box that you use. For puppets the size of about 10″

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  • How to

    Using Bendable Straws for Puppet Rods

    November 24, 2018July 16, 2019

    Instead of using velcro to connect moving rods to a puppet a cheap alternative is the use use bendable straws, first introduced by David and Donna Wisniewski in Worlds of Shadow, Teaching with Shadow Puppetry. You can

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  • How to

    Using a Big Screen

    November 11, 2018January 17, 2023

    If you want to do shadow puppetry as a class project or for a performance, you need a larger screen and puppets that are big enough to be seen well by the audience (12″-15″). The

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