Puppets Part B

This is the second part of a four part Puppets in Preschool Series. The first one can be found here: Puppets Part A

Ways to Use Puppets in the Classroom:

• Have the Puppet read books

• Puppet leads songs and dances

• The puppet can facilitate group time about subjects such as feelings (for a formal curriculum on this, check out the  Second Step Program , which utilizes a Puppy and Snail puppet as well as posters, songs, and stories all about feelings)

• The puppet helps gauge where a group is on a subject: i.e. The puppet counts but forgets a number, does the group of children know the puppet forgot? Can they correct the puppet? Also good for use with the alphabet.

• The puppet can help teach concepts such as counting or sorting.

• The puppet can teach about diversity. The puppet can facilitate the discussion of what is the ‘same’ and ‘different’ about traditions. (i.e. a lot of traditions center around food, but the food differs from family to family and culture to culture) The puppet can also talk about race with children by pointing out/asking about what is the same/different (we all have eyes, noses, hands, etc. But some people have brown eyes, some have blue eyes, some are white, black, Asian, etc. Even though there are differences there are far more similarities, etc.)

•  ETC ETC ETC: Basically the puppet can do anything in a classroom. If there is a subject you are less comfortable teaching or discussing, have the puppet do it, if the children are having a hard time with a concept, the puppet can help, etc.

For those of you who use the Creative Curriculum/ Teaching Strategies Gold, the next puppet post will be a list of the Objectives that can be reached through the use of puppets in the classroom.

After that, Puppet ideas to make ( a photo filled post!)