Role of Puppets in Education

Children are attracted by puppets and therefore puppets can be effectively used to capture their attention. They are
an interesting media for telling stories and songs.
In earlier days children could see the puppets only in fairs or in theaters but now-a-days children have become
familiar with puppets as puppetry has become quite a popular media.

Advantages of Puppetry for Children

• It provides them opportunity for verbal expression.
• Puppets help to develop dramatic expression.
• It helps to develop appropriate voice modulation.
• It provides opportunity for children for the development of fine motor skills.
• It gives them confidence.
• It provides opportunity for team work.
• It provides them emotional release.
If children watch a puppet show
• It stimulates their thinking process and makes learning more interesting.
• It enhances their power of imagination.
• It enables children to release their pent-up emotions without inhibition.
• It provides opportunity for developing their listening skills.
How to use puppets?
1. Story telling can be made very interesting with the help of different puppets. TO receive the right kind of
response from the kids, certain points have to be kept in mind:
• Kids should sit close to the teacher and the teacher should sit slightly at the higher level.
• The teacher should make sure that all the kids are able to see the puppet being manipulated by her.
• The story chosen shouldn’t have more than six-seven characters.
• The story should not be so long that it bores the children on the other side, it should be not be so short it
fails to satisfy the curiosity of children.
• The voice modulation should be according to the nature of the characters.
• Only the puppet that is talking or active should be moving at a time.
2. Singing songs is another activity which can be conducted with the help of puppets. For example, while
singing the traditional rhyme,’ Old McDonald had a farm’ the teacher can take help of animal puppet. She should
encourage children to manipulate the puppets while singing the song/rhyme.
3. Puppet shows can be organized on a large scale. Teachers and children who are participating in the puppet
show should:
• select right kind of story, keeping in mind the age group pf the audience. Dramatization of story should be
done in a dialogue form.
• select the kind of puppets to be used for example glove, sock puppets etc.
• select the characters of the story
• rehearse their characters properly.
4. Use of puppet in a conversation between two or more kids is an effective way of making introvert children
overcome their shyness. One of the ways of conducting this activity is by calling two children at a time and asking
them to carry out a conversation ( by using the puppets). See that all the children get a chance.
http://socyberty.com/education/role-of-puppets-in-education/

SKILLS CHILDREN LEARN FROM USING FELTS

Visual - Sight, Spatial Perception and Color Recognition
Tactile -- Touching and Soft Felt
Fine Motor -- Hand-Eye Coordination and Manipulation
Auditory -- Listening and Hearing
Language -- Speaking and Listening
Intellectual -- Cause and Effect, Problem Solving,
Patterning, Sequencing and Memorization
Social - Emotional -- Self Esteem, Exploring
Relationships, Recitation and Cultural Diversity
Creativity -- Imagination, Make Believe, Music and Drama
Life Skills -- Health and Hygiene, Manners,
Relationships & Dressing Appropriately
Color -- Vividness Attracts Attention

TIPS FOR SUCCESSFULLY USING FELT BOARDS

1. Arrange the pieces face up in the correct order for the story.
2. Decide in advance where and when to place each figure. Your story and placing the figures will flow more
naturally.
3. Sit or stand to one side of the board, with figures on your lap.
4. Once the figures are placed, move them as little as possible. Spend most of your time telling the story and
occasionally add, move, remove or point to a figure. Pause briefly when you move figures.
5. Have the children use the figures to tell stories.
6. Create a friendly atmosphere by having the children sit close to you.
7. Look into the faces of the children to make the felt board characters "come to life".
8. Relax and enjoy telling stories. Use smiles and show genuine pleasure to convey a positive message to the
children.

ADVANTAGES OF USING FELT VISUAL AIDS

1. Provide hands-on experience.
2. Encourages creativity.
3. Develop alphabet and number skills.
4. Enhances verbal skills as well as the child listens to, retells, and creates stories.
5. Provide a great support to your existing curriculum.
6. Involve math manipulatives
7. Teach sequencing.
8. Build self-esteem in the child.
9. Can be used to set up learning centers.
10. Contains many self-correcting stories
http://www.funfelt.com/flannel.html

Definition of "Toy and Movable Books"

• Toy and movable books are any books which contain text or illustrations that can be moved, more than is
done in the turning of an ordinary sized book page.
• They are also called "action books," "pop-ups," "special effects" books, and "surprise" books.
• "Toy and movable books" is the subject heading used in many libraries for these types of books, so these
treasures are easy to find in a library.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Toy and Movable Books

• Advantages:
○ These types of books can help bridge the gap between subject content and literature e.g.
mathematics and literature, or science and literature
○ They can help bridge the gap between the abstract world of literature, and the concrete world of
real objects.
○ In a world saturated with media, these types of action books can bridge the gap to more involved,
better quality literature.
○ Popular with children, including reluctant readers.
○ Great medium to enhance more traditional instruction.
○ Promote hands-on learning: "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand
(ancient Chinese proverb)."
○ Books of this type appeal to children because of their incongruity, their surprise element.
• Disadvantages:
○ These types of books can have low literary quality, because the emphasis is often on the pop-up
elements, the story or textual content may be of lesser quality. In fact, children often ignore the text,
and only deal with the pop-up elements!
○ Are the toy and movable parts there for the sake of being there, or do they add something to the
whole, something more than words or 2D pictures would not do just as well, if not better?
○ These books are fragile. Students need to treat them very gently.
http://www.uleth.ca/edu/currlab/handouts/popupbooks.html