By Alexia Finney | Staff Writer
The Mayborn Museum turns into a fantastical world where puppets, castles and crafts are an educational adventure every Monday.
Melissa Pennington, Mayborn Museum’s engagement coordinator and former elementary teacher, welcomes Waco families at 10:30 a.m. every Monday at the Mayborn for Mini Monday Story Time, a puppet show geared toward local kids.
This week, Waco families attended a live performance of “The Three Little Pigs,” recited by colorful puppets with bubbly personalities. Afterwards, children engaged in an activity: creating their very own puppet.
Pennington said her goal is not only to entertain children but to inspire them to become storytellers themselves.
“We are not a professional puppet company,” Pennington said. “We went around our museum and we just put this together. You can make these puppets yourself at home, and you can be the storyteller.”
Pennington has been leading the program for four years and said her creativity for Mini Monday comes from the Mayborn’s immersive environment. According to Pennington, the Mayborn story time is different from other Waco story times due to its location.
“We have at our disposal this wonderful array of different exhibits with rich collections,” Pennington said. “We have a village out in the back, natural history [and] science. It all comes together, and we roam around the museum and have our own story time and connect our story to the exhibit.”
Dallas graduate student Makenzie Cohen, Pennington’s assistant, helps run the program. Cohen said the experience provides a creative outlet as well as a meaningful way to connect her classroom learning with community engagement.
“As a graduate assistant, it was kind of a given that I would help with it, but it’s been so much fun,” Cohen said. “Sometimes our stories connect with whatever holidays or cultural events are going on. For example, last week, we had a story theme connected to Hispanic Heritage Month.”
The range of story time performances and activities allowed students to highlight diversity in addition to practicing leadership, creativity and teaching skills.
Brenna Bass, Baylor’s museum engagement coordinator, volunteered for story time and said she was drawn in by Pennington’s excitement and love for teaching children.
“Melissa has all these wonderful ideas, and she gets really excited about them,” Bass said. “For me personally, I want to share in that excitement and that fun. Story time is not a part of my normal day-to-day job, so the chances that I do get to be a part of it, it’s really fun and exciting.”
Mayborn STEM Programs Coordinator Alan Small described Pennington as the “conductor of this orchestra” who invites colleagues across Waco to bring their talents into Mayborn story time. Over the years, story time has featured guest readers ranging from the mayor to Sparky the Fire Dog.
“Every time we do it, it just gets better,” Pennington said. “The kiddos can look, feel and go back with the memory that, ‘This is Mayborn Museum today, but I also visited story time.’”
