Ways to Use Puppets

 in Your Class

Why should teachers use puppets in their class?

 Teachers use puppets for the same reason a fisherman puts bait on his hook; to catch the attention of children. Children love puppets. Puppets are much more than a cute toy. Puppets are powerful communication tools.  Puppets are tools you should add to your tool box along with the paper and pencils.

Ideas for using puppets.

1. Put small hand puppets in learning centers. Let the puppets become actors to role play situations they are learning about in class. Describe a situation in a short paragraph on a tape recorder and let the children act out the situation you have described. For example. You are studying Community Helpers and the letter "S". Your paragraph might be something like this. Susie and Sam are brother and sister. Their mom promised them both if they picked up their toys everyday for the entire week, she would take them to the bakery to select one special sweet treat for supper on Saturday. Susie and Sam hardly had to be reminded at all because their favorite dessert was strawberry shortcake. Saturday finally arrived and they headed to the bakery to purchase Mr. Smith's yummy strawberry shortcake. They tried to open the door, but it was locked. Mr. Smith was always open on Saturdays, but today the door was locked. Have the children act out the story and what happens next with their puppets.

The 14" puppets are perfect for little hands. They are easy to manipulate and the low price makes them perfect for little pocketbooks (the teachers) too.

2. Use a cheerleader puppet and make a cheer out of the spelling words. Have the class answer the cheerleader back like they would do at a pep rally. If you want your cheerleader puppet to be ditzy then she can misspell the word. Have a volunteer or an older student prerecord four or five of the spelling words into a cheer and put the puppet and the tape in a learning center.

Or turn a grammar rule into a cheer. Any grammar rule can be turned into a cheer. If you don't have a clue how to make a cheer, then let your cheerleader puppet be clueless too. She could be the world worst cheerleader trying to learn a cheer.

Divide the class into groups. Each group will make a cheer out of the grammar rule and perform it for the cheerleader puppet. Let the puppet try to perform her favorite cheer.

You could get a lot of mileage out of this cheerleader character puppet so take the time to develop her personality. You don't need to be a ventriloquist, but you do need good puppetry skills. Our puppet basic skill training video is a good place to start. (See Bunraku Puppetry)

You may want to use the full sized 24" inch Caucasian Cheerleader puppet  or Ethnic cheerleader puppet instead of the smaller version of this puppet.  An incredible price for a puppet that large.

3. Use the king puppet to give the Learning Center rules and the activity rules for each center because the King is the ruler you know. He should appear each day at the beginning of class holding a ruler to remind everyone he is the ruler and Learning Centers are his kingdom. Just like there are rules on the playground and rules on the baseball diamond, by the way Queen Victoria wants to be the ruler there because she loves diamonds. Imagine that, a diamond big enough to play ball on.

Suggested rules for the puppet center.

1. Be sure your puppet uses good manners. Any puppet that bites or hits will have to sit in time out. The time out location is back in the container where the puppets are kept.

2. Puppets must remain in their center. Please double check your pockets and hands. Puppets love to hide there.

3. Remind your puppet to use their inside voice.

Your king puppet would give any instructions for the learning center that you might give.

Such as :

Be sure all crayons are put away in their box before you move to the next center.

Blocks are for building, not throwing.

Your block building cannot be any higher than your shoulders.

Play dough must be kept on your mat in your place at the play dough center.

Chef Puppet

Cook up some fun with this full bodied chef puppet. Use him to teach the alphabet as he cooks up his favorite alphabet soup. Let him pull letters out of a pot. 

To do that just attach a big spoon to his hand and magnets to the letters he is pulling out of the pot. Or simply use magnetic letters in a plastic bowl or flour sack.

Or use a large cook pot, or flour sack. Pretend he has fallen in to the pot or sack. When you hear something you find and rescue him. It would be a fun way for him to enter the class. The chef puppet is looking for a specific letter and he can't seem to find one. It seems he is missing the letter "..." and needs it for his alphabet soup. He can't cook it without that letter. Ask the class to make their very best (whatever letter the chef puppet chooses). When they have finished the task, they should think of a word that begins with that letter and bring their letter to put in the chef puppet's cook pot. Name your cook after the classes' favorite TV chef.

While we're talking about the alphabet what better way to review the alphabet or phonetic sounds than with these adorable human hand kids.

They come with a sack of yummy alphabet cookies. One side has the letter in upper case. The other side is the same letter in lower case. He/she was given the sack of cookies by their grandma. He/she promised that they would not eat the cookie until ... I know what you're thinking. You're thinking they can't eat the cookies until after they eat supper. But that's not what Granny said. Granny said, you have to say the letter before you can eat it. Since she/he doesn't know her letters yet, they need help.

The puppet has a human hand. So put one of your hands in the puppet mouth and the other hand in the hand of the puppet. Stuff the other arm and hand and pin it to the bottom of the sack like it is holding the sack.

The puppet should pull a cookie out of the sack and ask a student that knows the letter to raise their hand. The puppet asks them what the letter is. When the child answers the puppet double checks the answer with the teacher. Repeats the letter.

Because the teacher is holding the puppet and doing the talking, you can show either the upper or lower case letter. Whichever you are working on. Or the puppet may show the other side of the cookie to the teacher with the question. "Is this a "..." too? The teacher says, Yes, that is an upper case (or lower case) and name the letter.

Don't forget the animal puppets.

Children love animals. My favorites are the new duck, mouse with a vest and the sheepdog.

Because the sheepdog puppet is so realistic I just don't have the heart to give this puppet a voice. When I bring him out at conferences, I have seen adults cross the room to see if the sheepdog puppet is a real dog. He is especially realistic when you have the puppet biting at imaginary fleas or panting. You can even have him bathe his paws with his tongue. His soft velvety  tongue is perfect for licking little hands. You could use him to greet the students when you begin circle time. Or you can bring him out when everyone is sitting on their bottoms in a circle. He could whisper secrets in your ear for you to share with the class.

The mouse puppet could be the local school or church mouse telling all the things he saw the day before. The mouse puppet could tell the tales of messy people who leave paper towels on the floor or the water running in the sink.

Be sure to give this puppet a loveable personality. This adorable mouse puppet is so soft and huggable. If he is grouchy it makes him a little less huggable. He is perfect little fellow to share folk tales or stories with  your class. Let him read the story in his squeaky little voice or retell the story in his own words from a mouse's point of view.

If you need some help developing a strong personality for your puppet you'll want to order our Developing the Puppet Character training video.

Rooster Puppet

I was always an average student until the 8th grade. My teacher, Mr. Taylor, treated me like he thought I was really smart. I wanted to prove him right. I worked so hard that year, not just in his class, but all my classes, because I didn't want to prove him wrong. Mr. Taylor was a gold finder.

Andrew Carnegie had so many millionaires working for him that a newspaper came to interview him. "How is it you found so many millionaires?" the reporter began.

"Oh, they weren't millionaires when they came to work for me?"

"How is it they were worth a million dollars to you?" the reporter continued.

"Finding good in people is a lot like digging for gold. You got to dig a lot of dirt, but it's not the dirt you're looking for. You're looking for the gold," explained Mr. Carnegie.

Finding the good in students is the same process. Sometimes we teachers become so fixed on strengthening the weak areas that we forget to look for their strengths. The best way to strength the weak areas is to build from their strengths. When a child thinks he/she can do something they will. Be a gold finder.

I'm not talking about flattery. That is very different. Find their strengths, something they do well and brag on them in front of everyone. That's where the rooster puppet comes into play. ( I know you think I got off on a bunny trail. OK I'm guilty. By the way we have cute little bunny puppets too. Sorry, I just love puppets.)

Use the rooster puppet to swagger into class and brag about some accomplishment of one of your students. He has something to crow about. Have the children clap and crow with your rooster puppet. Crow about character traits as well as academic accomplishments. Crow about acts of kindness and helpfulness. Crow about traits that make a person great like honesty and persistence. 

Fireman Puppet  See the complete skit to teach fire safety rules.

Safety Rule Parodies  Have your puppet sing Safety Rules set to Rock & Roll music

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