INTRODUCING STUDENTS TO USING PUPPETS

How to introduce your students to using puppets

Children need to be gradually prepared to use puppets in class in much the same way as they need to be warmed up for writing or roleplay. I have learned through experience that it is not enough to simply give each child a puppet and say “ have a conversation.” Here is a gradual  process through which the child- puppet relationship can be established and strengthened over several weeks.

 3 steps in introducing children to puppets

            Step1. work in the private sphere

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            Step2. work in the public sphere using fixed roles

                                                                                 

                                                                                  i

                                  

               Step3. work in the public sphere using original roles

Step 1: work in the private sphere

1a. Aim: to encourage the child to view the puppet as a special friend who he can talk to in English

We all know that a teacher should never ask students to do what she will not do herself. Therefore, have your own puppet as a special friend. Introduce yourself to the puppet in front of the class. For example, I would say “ Hello, my name’s Denise. I am a teacher. I have  two children called Melisa and Tamara. I live in Istanbul and I love gardening. Next, have the children introduce themselves to their  puppets from the privacy of their own seats. No one will be listening to them as everyone is talking to their own puppets at the same time. It should be regarded as a fluency activity, with no need for teacher correction. With real beginner students this stage can even be carried out in L1.

1b. Aim: to help the child give the puppet a unique identity.

Have your puppet tell you about himself in front of the class. My puppet usually says “Hello, my name is Lucy. I come from Brasil. I am seven years old. I have a brother called Carlos and a puppy called spot. I love going to the beach.”  As with step 1a, allow all of the puppets to speak to their own puppeteer simultaneously.

Step 2. work in the public sphere  using fixed roles

Aim: to instill confidence in the children when using puppets in front of a group

Choose a well known action song such as”10 green bottles hanging on the wall” or “head shoulders knees and toes”. Have the children make their puppets dance and do the actions as the class sing.For example, when singing “ ten green bottles hanging on a wall” I have ten children stand up and hold their puppets up high. As we sing the line “and if one green bottle should accidently fall” the child I point to lets his puppet fall down.

Step3.Working in the public sphere using original roles.

Aim: to use puppets for communicative language work.

Tell the children that they are taking their puppets to an international holiday camp  At the camp they will meet puppets from all over the world. Brainstorm the language of giving and asking for personal information e.g. “what’s your name?”, “where are you from?”, “how old are you?” etc. Give the class planning time so that each child can recall or invent the necessary personal information about his puppet. Finally, the children walk around the classroom introducing their puppets to other puppets and collecting as much personal information about them as possible. If your children need more practise producing the language patterns they need to carry out this fluency based mingle activity, extend the planning stage by getting the children to copy down the personal information questions you brainstormed earlier. The children then answer the questions using the “I” form , as if they were their puppet.

Classroom procedure for two activities using puppets

In this section, I would like to present 2 activities using puppets which you may like to try out in class.

Activity One.       I’m Hungry (Adapted from Pebbles By .Penny Hancock & Gail Ellis  Longman)

Materials required. A card strip hanging puppet as the main character

                              A strip of card approximately 20 cm long and 2 cms wide per child

                             A square of paper per child

Coloured pencils per child

Language aim:      To practise “have got” + food vocabulary

Teacher holds the puppet up and mimes that it is very hungry.

Teacher elicits that the puppet is hungry and asks what it likes to eat.

Children offer suggestions e.g hamburgers, apples, pizza

Teacher asks children to draw a picture of something the puppet can eat on the square of paper. Literate children can also lable their picture.

Children attach the strip of card to the top of their picture in order to make a card strip hanging puppet/prop.

Teacher calls children out to the front saying “ Ali,  what have you got for (puppet’s name) to eat?

Child hangs his food puppet in front of the teacher’s puppet and replies “ I’ve got a ..........”

Teacher repeats the process with the other children.

Alternative suggestions:

The above technique can be used in exactly the same way for the following scenarios and language items

v    The birthday party: language aim: “Here’s a + toy lexis.”

 It is a puppet’s birthday. The children make  gift  props which they give to      the puppet saying for example “Here’s a car”.

v  I’m bored: language item “You can play with + toy lexis”

The puppet is bored. The children make a toy prop which they give to the puppet saying for example, “You can play with my doll”

v  Where’s my teddy bear: Language aim: “Is it + prepositions of place. The puppet is  in a lounge . He can not find his favourite teddy bear. Children make props of places the teddy bear might be e.g  under the table, behind a cushion.

Children approach the puppet asking “Is it in the cupboard?.” The answer is always no as the teddy bear is stuck on the back of the puppet. Eventually. the puppet turns around with his back to the children .On seeing the teddy bear children shout out  “It’s behind you”

Activity Two: Little House  using tube puppets.

(See section B b above on how to make tube puppets.)

Materials required:

 An open topped cardboard box, decorated to look like a house.

Tube puppets for the following characters: Mr Mouse, Mr Frog, Mrs Fox, Mr Rabbit  and Mr Bear.

 (The little house is in the middle of the stage)

Mr Mouse (Looking at the house) What a lovely little house!. Little house, little house, who lives in little house? ( Mr Mouse jumps into the house)

Mr Frog: (Looking at the house) What a lovely little house!. Little house, Little House, who lives in Little House?

Mr Mouse: I’m Mr Mouse. I Live in Little House. Who are You?

Mr Frog: I’m Mr Frog.

Mr Mouse: Come in. ( Mr Frog jumps into the house)

Mrs Fox: (Looking at the house) What a lovely little house!. Little House, Little House, who lives in Little House?

Mr Mouse: I’m Mr Mouse

Mr Frog: I’m Mr Frog.

Mr Mouse & Mr Frog: We live in Little House. Who are You?

Mrs Fox: I’m Mrs Fox.

      Mr Mouse & Mr Frog: Come in. ( Mrs Fox jumps into the house)

Mr Rabbit : (Looking at the house) What a lovely little house!. Little House, Little House, who lives in Little House?

Mr Mouse: I’m Mr Mouse

Mr Frog: I’m Mr Frog.

Mrs Fox: I’m Mrs Fox

Mr Mouse , Mr Frog & Mrs Fox: We live in Little House. Who are You?

Mr Rabbit: I’m Mr Rabbit.

Mr Mouse, Mr Frog & Mrs Fox: Come in.

Mr Squash You All Flat Bear: (Stomps up to the house) Who lives here?

Mr Mouse: I’m Mr Mouse

Mr Frog: I’m Mr Frog.

Mrs Fox: I’m Mrs Fox

Mr Rabbit: I’m Mr Rabbit.

Mr Mouse, Mr Frog, Mrs Fox, Mr Rabbit: We live in Little House. Who are you?

Mr Squash You All Flat Bear: I’m Mr Squash You All Flat Bear.

Other animals: Oh no. Run away! ( Animals jump out of the house. The bear turns the box over and and stomps on top of it as if trying to break it up. After bear leaves all the other animals return to the house.)

Mr Mouse, Mr Frog, Mrs Fox, Mr Rabbit: Poor little house. We can rebuild Little House. (Re-right the box and put the animals back into it.)

Mr Mouse: I’m Mr Mouse

Mr Frog: I’m Mr Frog.

Mrs Fox: I’m Mrs Fox

Mr Rabbit: I’m Mr Rabbit.

Mr Mouse, Mr Frog, Mrs Fox, Mr Rabbit: We live in Little House.

The End.

HOW TO MAKE SOCK PUPPETS

HOW TO USE PUPPETS FOR TEACHING

Using puppets to get children talking in English

USING PUPPETS FOR TEACHING

USING PUPPETS FOR TEACHING

• Two fluent English speakers in class are better than just one.

Puppets introduce another proficient English speaker into the classroom for the teacher to speak to. This is important,  as one natural language learning strategy adopted by children is that of observing and then imitating conversations conducted by the people around them. Small children can often be heard rehearsing dialogues with their toys. The puppet allows this 3 dimensional dialogue modelling to take place in the classroom.  For example, imagine that the teacher wishes to demonstrate how to ask for a coloured pencil in English. She places a red pencil and a blue pencil to the right of the puppet ( Out of reach of her left hand to neccessitate  the pencil being passed to her by the puppet) , then turns to him and has the following dialogue:

Teacher “Homer, can I have a pencil please?

Puppet “Yes, what colour?”

Teacher “Red please”

Puppet (Handing “Here you are”

over pencil)

Teacher “Thank you”

The pencils are then placed on the far left of the teacher and the roles are reversed. Homer asks for the pencil and the teacher passes it to him.  After modelling the dialogue again the teacher invites a child to come to the front and take one of the roles, whilst the teacher speaks for the puppet.

In my experience, young children are very keen to do this. They rarely experience performance anxiety and any embarrassment they do have is greatly reduced by the fact that they view the puppet as a being half way between the teacher and themselves.

• Puppets help create a genuine information gap 

A key tennet of the communicative approach to language teaching  is that genuine communication involves a purpose such as giving someone information or getting them to do something. Real communication centres on an information gap  for when we genuinely communicate we usually do not know everything that the speaker is going to say. We may be able to predict a percentage of what they will say, but there will always be attitudinal information that is new to us. This “genuine information gap” is difficult to create in a classroom of elementary learners who have worked together for a period of time because 

a) the students have discovered a lot about each other through observation and through conversations in their mother tongue

b) the students have a limited number of patterns and lexical sets at their disposal restricitng topic variety.

Therefore, an alternative to asking for and giving personal information about classroom members is to get the students to exchange  information about their puppets as the puppets can come from anywhere in the world, have any name their creator wishes and have a whole gambit of likes, dislikes and hobbies.

BENEFITS OF USING PUPPETS

Making a Flip Chart for Figurative Language

CLASSIFICATION OF DIDACTIC MATERIALS

1. Permanent resources

These are the materials that the teacher has in hand; s/he uses them almost every day.Types: whiteboard, eraser, books, notebooks, pens, pencils, charts, flashcards, puppets, pointers, markers.

The whiteboard

• The planning of the use of the board is important so that if a student was not in class, he or she can understand the content and development of the class.
• It is not advisable to erase the board during the class.
• Write from  up and down and from left to right.
• Use legible writing.
• Use especially black, blue, green and red board markers

2. Technician resources

—Audiovisual aids
—Computing media
—Information and communication technologies

Audiovisual aids

* Audio visual aids can be any equipment that is used to engage the senses of sight and sound. Audio equipment may be used separately from visual equipment, but often they are used together.

* Types: Computers, television, CD player, tapes, DVDs, overhead projectors and posters, cartoon strips, costumes, realia and field trips. 

Computing media

* The didactic media are computing software and interactive web pages, including text and audiovisual elements and are made specifically to facilitate certain learning.

* Types: word processor, data base, electronics sheets, informatics educative programs, tutorials, simulators, educative games, multimedia programs, etc.

* Educative games.- People don't like to play easy games, and games have figured out a way to encourage players to persist at solving challenging problems.

information and communication technologies (ICT)

• "ICT" is used as a general term for all kinds of technologies which enable users to create access and manipulate information. ICT is a combination of information technology and communications technology.

•  Types: forums, emails, chats, videoconferences

TEACHING MATERIALS

TEACHING MATERIALS

Materials are any instruments that help us to achieve any goal; that is, auxiliary material with which the students develop the learning process.

IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING MATERIALS

·   They enrich the sensorial experience. 

·   Facilitate the acquisition and the setting of the learning.

· Motivate the learning.

· Stimulate the imagination and the capacity of abstraction of the students.

·  Save time, both in the explanations and in their selection and manufacturing.

·  Enrich the vocabulary.

· Helps the education of the multiple intelligences, logical, systemic, lateral, creative and critical thinking to the acquisition of the knowledge.

·   Help the learning and the retention.

Ideas for using flashcards

HOW TO MAKE ALPHABET FLASHCARDS FOR CHILDREN 

Where to get flash cards?

• Buy them - Some course books provide a supplementary pack of flash cards or they can be bought in sets.

• Make them yourself - If you don't have access to professionally produced flash cards, don't worry, it's really easy to make your own even if you're not very artistic. You can use pictures from magazines, draw simple pictures or copy from the internet or clip art. The most important thing is to make sure they are all of the same size, on card (different colours for different sets) so you can't see through them. If possible you can laminate the sets as you make them and they will last for years. The advantage of making your own, apart from the fact that they're cheap and yours to keep, is that you can make sets for your specific needs. You may like to make a set to use in conjunction with a story book or graded reader, or even to accompany project work.

• Students make them - I have recently begun to incorporate the production of flash cards into the classroom. After introducing a new lexical set, using realia or the course book, ask students to produce the flash cards for you. Give each one an item to draw. They can be mounted on card to make the set.

Activities for using flash cards

Memory Activities

• Memory Tester
  • Place a selection of flash cards on the floor in a circle.
  • Students have one minute to memorise the cards.
  • In groups, they have two minutes to write as many of the names as they can remember.

Drilling Activities 

• Invisible Flash cards
  • Stick 9 flash cards on the board and draw a grid around them.
  • Use a pen or a pointer to drill the 9 words. Always point to the flash card you are drilling.
  • Gradually remove the flash cards but continue to drill and point to the grid where the flash card was.
  • When the first card is removed and you point to the blank space, nod your head to encourage children to say the word of the removed flash card.
  • Students should remember and continue as if the flash cards were still there. They seem to be amazed that they can remember the pictures.
  • Depending on the age group I then put the flash cards back in the right place on the grid, asking the children where they go, or I ask students to come up and write the word in the correct place on the grid.