Projects - The Puppet Tree

COMMUNITY PROJECTS

In 2015 the founder of the Puppet Tree Karen Crane created and facilitated two projects supported by Excel 2000 Norfolk. ‘The Mystery of Mystery Mist’ which raised awareness of the local heritage fishing industry and SPARKLE for children who are experiencing loss or bereavement.. Following the success of these projects The Puppet Tree has been offering specific funded projects as part of our social enterprise activities since 2016. We have been funded by Children in Need, Awards For All and other funding bodies. Previous projects have included helping children develop their literacy skills. (Pips Magic Tree.) and communicating anxieties caused by the pandemic (All Aboard). We continue developing puppet-based projects aimed to support the local community.

The Mystery of Mystery Mist

Mystery of Mystery Mist is a book and film written for children to help them learn about North Norfolk’s fishing heritage.

Commissioned by The North Norfolk’s ‘Flag’ project and funded by The Marine Management Organisation in 2015 it tells the story of a little ghost child called Snapper and how three children help him to find his way home and learn about the heritage of Norfolk’s fishing industry as they uncover the ‘Mystery’ of Mystery Mist.

This is a picture of a young boy with his family by their boat in 1910… it inspired the character of the ghost child ‘Snapper’.

The film was created with the help of 300 local school children. The characters and narration are voiced by children. Visit North Norfolk with them and meet local places and people involved in what is being seen as a trade in risk of being lost as modern life replaces centuries of fishing heritage.

The above image features the children and puppets on the beach during filming for heritage project

Film making production stills

As seen on the BBC!

SPARKLE!

Generously funded by Children in Need in 2015 and Awards For All in 2016 SPARKLE was a project written to support children who struggle with anxiety and bereavement through engaging in puppet based activities.

PIP’S MAGIC TREE

Funded by The Big Community Lottery Fund Pip and his family of fairy ‘Hyter Sprites’ were first introduced in 2019 to support a project written to encourage children to develop their literary skills.

The UK is at the very bottom of the literacy scale and the projects aims are to encourage story writing for children through creative puppet-based play.

Join Pip and his family as they tell their own story about how they came to The Puppet Tree to help the Toy Shop lady, and how they ask the children to help them write their stories.

PIP’S MAGIC TREE (All aboard).

Pip returns in our current project funded by Awards For All which support a puppet based project aimed at helping ease anxiety associated with the Covid 19 pandemic.

It contains a programme designed to help children, families, and community groups to create their own puppet show. It includes pages to encourage puppet design and script writing for children of all ages and abilities, and then allows them to create their own shows in The Puppet Tree.

The project ran until the end of February 2022.

A BIG thank you to all our funders for making our current projects possible.

Sponsor us!

We’re making a difference to hundreds of children, their families, and the local community thanks to our funding, but we need to keep being sponsored so we can keep our workshops accessible to all.

Do you want to sponsor us? Please get in touch!

Would you like to talk about a project?

To start the conversation about a project please drop us a line! We’d love to hear from you.