Educational Programming at the Ice House Theater

Situated on Bethlehem's Sand Island, the IceHouse Performance Center has served as Mock Turtle’s base for delivering active educational field trips, thanks to a long partnership with the city of Bethlehem. In more than twenty years of field trips for local schools, we have generally focused on literacy themes through our Early Reader Field Trip Program. Recently, we added a field trip tailored to the Kennedy Center's Any Given Child  program, for which we set up an artist’s studio on the IceHouse stage and presented collaborative programs for the Bethlehem Area School District.

 Early Reader Field Trips

Early Reader Field Trips

Our K-5 programs at the IceHouse offer three separate experiences in puppetry. First, our literacy-based  puppet show, Book, Beast, and Puppet, explores the adventure of growing up to be a strong and competent reader. The second half of the field trip engages all students in a puppet-making workshop, with a follow-up lesson on production of a puppet script.

Future Plans for Field Trips

In the coming school year, our field trip program will be further strengthened by a more intensive partnership with our local school district and creation of a new Any Given Child  field trip program.                

Goals and Outcomes

In many ways, our educational work in our own theater space is the ideal situation for creating memorable and effective puppet-based lessons.  Not only do we have the sound and lighting for superior productions, we have all of historic Sand Island. Groups can use the playground, picnic area and tow paths along the canal.  These field trips on Sand Island bring together nature, theater, and puppetry for a memorable childhood experience.