Activity 1.3: creating a puppet play
Introduction
This set of activities could run for several lessons. The set begins with students speculating about a forlorn-looking bear. They perform a puppet play about the bear, and then reflect on the experience.
Resources
- Open space large enough for students to move comfortably and safely
- Forlorn-looking bear
- Butcher's paper and pens
- Toys, objects and puppets
- Clue cards
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Initiation phase Show details
- Present the students with a forlorn-looking bear and tell them that you found it outside the class this morning with a note. It has seen better days and has some mud on it and some torn hair. There is a note attached to the bear that says:
'I found this bear on my walk this morning. I didn't know what to do with it so I have left it outside your class room; maybe you can find out where it belongs and how it got here?'
- Encourage the students to speculate:
- What happened to the bear?
- Where did it come from?
- When did this happen?
- Who does it belong to?
- What should we do?
Variations of these five questions form the basis for many dramas and explorations. A how or why question could also be added.
Gossip mill
- Ask the students to think about how the bear came to be lost in the park.
- Have the students stand and walk around the space; on a signal they are to pause and speak to the person closest to them. They will whisper to the other student how they think the toy came to be lost in the park. The sentence starts 'The bear was in the park because ...'
- Once they have both whispered their story, they move on and again stop on signal, whispering to someone new.
- After about three or four goes, check in and see what they have all been hearing.
This activity allows quiet students to articulate, and all students to hear the ideas of others.
Cards
- In a whole of class discussion, pool the ideas and suggestions that they heard in gossip mill.
- Prompt further discussion using clue cards. For example, did the dog take it for a walk? Did a younger brother or sister drop it?
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Experiential phaseShow details
Group mapping
- Explain to the class that they will be working to make puppet plays to share with the class, but the first step is the shaping and structuring of the narrative.
- Select groups or use the class method to arrange students in groups.
- Have students decide, in their groups, what they think happened to the bear and then draw pictures of the story on butcher's paper. Remind students to respond to the questions what, when, where, who, how, why to create the narrative. It may only be three drawings, but press for a beginning, a problem and a solution for the lost bear.
- Have each group decide on the puppets and objects they will need to create their puppet play. (Students may use existing objects, toys or puppets or create these in visual art if, for example, they want a tree or park bench.)
- Let the group decide who plays the parts, but ensure that all students have a part in the puppet play. The group can also decide if there will be one narrator or if all will contribute to the story.
Assist the group decisions if appropriate, depending on the year level.
At the end of this stage students have a simple narrative charted out on butcher's paper in pictures.
Group rehearsal
- Have students in groups allocate puppets and actions to each member and rehearse the sequence they have devised together.
- Press each group to ensure that we find out where the bear has come from and what has happened before the bear has been found. Do they want to add sound effects?
- Remind students to practise their story out aloud so that it can be heard by all.
Sharing puppet plays
- Have students in their groups present their puppet plays to the class. At the start, set up the space and remind the students about listening carefully to each performance.
- After each group has presented their play, elicit and discuss the students' responses to the performances. Ask how might they have been improved. Was it clear what each puppet was doing? Could the story be heard?
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ReflectionShow details
- Ask the students to think about any lost bears or toys they have found. What did they do with them? What happens to all the lost and abandoned toys in the world?
- As a class have the students create some solutions. What should happen to all the lost toys? What in fact will they do with this lost bear?
- List their ideas and suggest they write an advertisement for the school in case any more lost toys turn up. Have the class as a whole create the text for the advertisement which you write up.
As an extra activity, students may like to draw or write up their puppet story in their journal and give it a title.