Maplewood Tutors

About Maplewood

When Maplewood, Minnesota, considered ideas to bring the community together, they turned to one thing everyone loves to do: laugh. With the partnership of Z Puppets Rosenschnoz, the City of Maplewood launched Kid City, a multidisciplinary youth task force that started in 2015 and uses laughter and creativity as tools to create a closer community and solve city problems. The program is funded by the Minnesota State Arts Board, the St. Paul Foundation, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and the Bigelow Foundation.

Z Puppets Rosenschnoz started when playwright Shari Aronson and street performer Chris Griffith discovered that (believe it or not!) ping pong balls glow in the dark. After adding costumes, sound effects, and quirky music, the Amazing Gnip Gnop Circus was born. Since then, the group has developed many other zany programs that all use imagination, creativity, and fun. Their original puppet shows and workshops are presented at outdoor festivals, museums, libraries, schools, and performing art centers. The troupe has won grants and countless awards from prestigious names such as the Jim Henson Foundation and Puppeteers of America.

Z Puppets injects this same fun and energy into Maplewood’s Kid City program, which tailors activities by age group. In some of the program’s first projects, fifth graders recorded laughter throughout the town’s neighborhoods, then created kiosks where the public can hear laughter and see a funny face gallery of city residents. Middle schoolers formed a Kid Council based on Brazilian artist Augusto Boal’s “Legislative Theater” methods and use theatrical play to discuss city problems and their real-life solutions, which are then presented to the City Council. High school students created a teen video team; these paid interns make mini-documentaries about Kid City activities and broadcast them on local community TV. These types of civic-focused extra-curricular activities, combined with the services of skillful Maplewood tutors to earn good grades, look really good on resumes.

Maplewood Kid City participants also team up for other activities, including the following:

- Laughter Labs: Creating laughter from jokes, improv, and silly fun
- Laugh-In: Swapping jokes to determine the funniest joke in Maplewood
- Happy Places: Using green screen video and a handmade toy theater to share happy places
- My City Parks: Creating miniature models of public parks that will then be presented to City Council
- WOW at Wakefield: Hosting an activity or booth at outdoor events in Wakefield Park.

Maplewood kids have proven that laughter is a great avenue to solutions and that it breaks down barriers between people. The best Maplewood tutors and teachers know that laughter can also be a part of a well-rounded academic learning program.