Monthly Archives: November 2010

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How to Make a Shadow Puppet Theatre

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View Make a simple shadow puppet theatre

Today I have been preparing my first ever “Shadow Puppet Play” which I will perform with my class of pre-schoolers.

Shadow puppetry is a form of puppetry, in which you move puppets, cut out of paper, between a light source and a screen. The audience on the other side of the screen only sees the shadows. It is great for storytelling, a lot of fun to prepare and children love it. You can make it as ambitious as you like with moving body parts and different props and scenes.

Having very little previous experience with shadow puppets I decided to keep it simple, play safe and chose a well known fairy tale ”Little Red Riding Hood”. I am no great artist and I rely heavily on stencils from the internet for masks, paper puppets, flashcards etc. Today I came across a great website www.hvanrossum.com which really helped me out for stencils and how to stage a puppet play for young children. “Heleen Van Rossum“ will give you step by step advice on how to approach your first performance.

I recently purchased a cardboard puppet theatre from IKEA for about $7 which is simple to assemble and  practical for transporting around as it folds flat. In the photos you can see I simply attached,with masking tape, a piece of paper table cloth or baking paper (just as Heleen van Rossum suggests) and I’m happy to go.

Start out by narrating the story slowly animating your voice and using the puppets. (I suggest to practice a few times at home in front of a mirror).You can stop during or at the end of each scene and ask the children what they understand. Don’t let the play last for more than 7 mins (keep it short and sweet to maintain the children’s full attention)

Now invite the children to come “behind the scenes” and become the puppeteers themselves as you retell the story. To finish, prepare a simple shadow puppet character template for each child to cut out and make their own.

Happy teaching

Miranda

 

 

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Rusty the Puppet Tourist Tuscany

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There are so many ways in which our character puppets can be used in education, whether it be teaching English , Maths or Science. A puppet brings instant joy and motivation to both young and old. Here we continue with Rusty the Puppet touring Italy introducing us to the wonders of Florence.

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“Here I am with my friend Thomas outside the Church Santa Maria Novella in the Centre of Florence, Italy . It’s all made of marble and is an important Gothic church in Tuscany. It was built between 1279 and 1357 …Wowww, that’s old! “

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“Hi, here I am outside the "Duomo"  cathedral in Florence, It’s  true name is "Santa Maria del Fiore" or "Our Lady of the Flower." It took nearly 140 years to build and was designed by  Filippo Brunelleschi , Amazing, isn’t it? Along with St Peter’s in Rome and St. Paul’s in London, the “Duomo” is considered the largest Christian Church in the world”

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“This is a replica of the “David” statue outside the Duomo. It is 5.17 metres high and was sculpted by the famous artist Michelangelo. It took 3 years to build and was made out of a marble block . It represents the Biblical hero David . He is very strong and dominating (bit like myself 🙂 ) and symbolized Florentine freedom.”

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“Great fresco inside the Duomo. I would have liked to have gone up to look closer but there’s no lift and Thomas refused to give me a piggy back. Oh well another time… Enough of culture  for the moment , is it pizza lunch time yet? :-))”

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Rusty in Tuscany. Substitute the teacher… with a puppet!

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Hi I’m Rusty the Puppet. I’m from England and at the moment I’m visiting my friend Thomas in Florence, Italy. Thomas is bilingual which is a good job as my Italian is not up to scratch. The other day he took me on the new Tram to the centre of Florence where we visited Piazza Santa Maria Novella. In the background you can see the Duomo, Florence’s largest Cathedral… WOWWW ..it’s nearly as big as my mouth!.

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How to teach English when you don’t know a word!

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Would you like to teach your children English even if you can’t speak it well yourself?

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I use this fun interactive “learning to read site” with my bilingual Italo/English 6 year old. He speaks and comprehends English well but like many bilingual children his reading and writing skills are behind. Starfall is fun as it uses phonics, stories and plays to teach and motivate children to read aloud. For non-English speaking parents or teachers you can easily follow the simple stories yourselves and click on words to reveal their correct pronunciation.

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Ricky (the puppet) Explores Antarctica

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Antarticapuppet

Puppets can share joy or sadness; they can be naughty or good, cheeky or shy; and when a child is engaged by a puppet they can learn lessons and absorb messages without even realising they are.

For perfect example check out  http://antarcticapuppet.primaryblogger.co.uk/ .
A fabulous blog about how Ricky (the puppet) investigates science in the real world and “Explores Antarctica”. www.puppetsproject.com  also provide many ideas for science projects using puppets

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Using ESL Drama with There was an old lady who swallowed a fly

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Image result for there was an old lady images childs play

This well-known rhyme lends itself well to using some creative and interactive drama activities with children. It is also useful for young ESL learners as there is a lot of repetition in it. Even though young children may only be able to join in on the first line introducing each animal, the repetition helps build memory and fluency.

Teacher Role play

  1. To introduce the story you could simply adapt a kitchen apron sewing/gluing or stapling  a transparent front pocket to  represent the old lady’s tummy. You could then cut out and color the story animals that are swallowed by the od lady.(laminate the cut outs so they can also be re-used for other activities in future lessons)
  1. Instead of simple reading the book – for extra fun and to add a surprise element, before your class arrives, dress yourself up as the old lady using a wig or head scarf, pair of eye glasses, walking stick and your apron of course.
  1. As the children walk into class you can delight them with your “old lady” saying things like “I’m hungry, I’m very very hungry- have you got something to eat?” Look around the room,  in children’s pockets, in their ears! Children love it! Don’t forget to dramatize your character using a squeaky voice and aching back!!
  1. Sit the children in a circle on the floor and set the animal flashcards in front of them. Start telling the story using lots of mime and animation as you introduce the animals encourage the children to indicate the correct correct animal before you swallow it loudly and hungrily and put it in your transparent tummy.
  1. For an extra role-play exercise – dress the children up and get them walking and talking and imagining they are 100 years old. Or to imagine how it would feel to have a spider wriggling inside!
  1. You could also provide them with their own zip-lock bags and get them to make their own personal animals or finger puppets to put inside. Repeat the story again with everyone choosing their correct animal to eat.

Here is an interesting animated version of the story.

The following link to shadow puppet play I found on youtube may give you some creative ideas on how to stage the story

 

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Have no fear! Puppets are positive creatures that bring about positive responses.

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We are extremely happy to finally go live with our new website GoGoGenius

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My husband and I decided to set up GoGoGenius as we wanted to create a special place where parents, teachers and educators could find products, tips and suggestions to help their children learn English through fun and creativity .

We are based in Florence, Italy, and we sell puppets and educational products primarily, but not exclusively, dedicated to teaching English, using fun, unconventional methods and theatre techniques.

Over the next few weeks we will be adding many more products and resources and we would love to receive any feedback from you.

Check out our puppet range as I believe they are a fantastic resource for any parent or teacher for use in educational activities such as storytelling, phonics, mathematics, and foreign language teaching.

As an English teacher, I use puppets in class on a regular basis because I have seen for myself that they work very successfully . Puppets are positive creatures that bring about positive responses. They fascinate and engage both children and adults in a special way. They capture a child’s attention and make learning fun!

Many educators shy away from using puppets not knowing really what to do with them apart from using them as a simple “doll”.

Fear not!!!!!!

I will try and give you some fundamental puppet tips and convey to you what wonderful teaching tools they really are.

Stay tuned!! Miranda’s back!!!