Tag Archives: Puppets in Education

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The Rainbow Song –learning colours in English

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A simple activity to play in class to introduce colours

Traffic Light Game Young children love this game both being the Ferrari and the traffic Light. Aims: To introduce and practice colours red, yellow, green and Stop, Be careful, Go

    1. Cut out some squares 10x10cm of different coloured paper and use them as flashcards. Elicit the colours red, green and yellow.
    2. As you hold up each flashcard and call out the colour ask all the children to run and touch something “red”, “yellow” or green in the room it could be someone’s clothing or an object in the room. Do this a few times until the children are familiar the colours.
    3. Explain to the players that when you hold up the red flashcard and call out red the children must stop and freeze!
    4. When you hold up the yellow light and call out yellow the players must start hopping
    5. When you hold up the green flashcard and call out green the players can run (but no bumping into others!).

Alternative Game: to practice Stop, Be careful, Go

Explain to the children that they are all cars and mime a steering wheel using your hands and beep on the horn. Now hold up the red flashcard and tell the children that when you hold up read and call out stop they have to freeze! When you hold up the yellow light and call out be careful the cars must go very slowly and when you hold up the green flashcard they can drive very fast (but no bumping into others!).

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Fruity Prepositions with Pippo the Puppet

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thomas_gorilla 

Teach Prepositions with Pippo the Puppet

When introducing prepositions (in, on, under, in front of, behind)  a puppet can be a useful teacher assistant and engaging for children.

Activity Instructions

Bring to class some fruit props (orange, pear, banana, apple, kiwi, etc) children tend to become very excited about real fruit, but plastic fruit is fine and easier to store away for future exercises:-) Place the fruit on your desk or on the floor in a circle where all the children can see it. Use an empty box (puppet size) and give your puppet instructions to carry out.

Example:

“Hello Pippo, can you show the children a banana, please? Very good Pippo.” (Pippo picks out and holds up the banana for the children to see, get the children to repeat the word and use lots of applause of encouragement both for Pippo and the children)

“Where’s the pear, please Pippo?” (Pippo picks out and holds up the pear for the children to see, and again have the children to repeat the word)

When the children become familiar with the fruit have Pippo select an incorrect fruit and get the children to correct him. Then ask for a volunteer to help Pippo choose the correct fruit. Get the other children to applaud and encourage, if the child is unsure Pippo can always hint:-)

Now give Pippo preposition instructions :

“Pippo can you put the apple on the box/chair please?”

“Pippo can you put the apple in the box/chair please?”

“Pippo can you put the apple under the box/chair please?”

Again as the children become familiar with the prepositions , have Pippo make mistakes and encourage the children to correct him.

Have a competition between a child and Pippo as to who can be the quickest in putting the banana under the box/chair. The child always wins, of course!With older children this game works well with one child competing against another but be careful with younger children as they can end up in tears, especially if they don’t win. A tried and tested lesson that guarantees laughter and group participation even for the shyest of children:-)

Have Fun!

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Peter, my new bilingual teaching assistant….what a squawker!!

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bird

Get children actively involved in English lessons using a little English friend. A great teaching assistant!

Greeting “Peter” and introducing him to your class:

  • Hello Peter!
  • Good morning Peter!
  • Peter, where are you?
  • Peter ? there you are!
  • How are you today?
  • (Ask the children to say hello)

Ask “Peter the Toucan” some general questions:

  • What’s this?
  • What’s that?
  • What’s your favourite food?
  • What’s the weather like?
  • Where’s your pen?
  • Where’s your red bag?
  • Which do you prefer – the red or the green?
  • Which do you want?
  • Why are you happy/sad/tired/angry?
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Is make- believe with puppets more than just play?

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Puppets are positive creatures that bring about positive responses. They fascinate and engage both children and adults in a special way. Children are willing to suspend belief, and react to a puppet as if it were real. They find it motivating using puppets in “pretend play”  as they stimulate creativity and help develop imagination and vocabulary, preparing them for the real-life situations they will meet later on.Today many parents and teachers also find use for puppets for educational activities to teach children about letters, numbers, people, problem solving and safety issues. As an ESL teacher I use them to enrich storytelling, elicit new vocabulary, sing songs and even introduce classroom rules!

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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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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

gogogenius_home

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!!!