Puppets Make Perfect Teacher Assistants!
“Bebe needs help learning Spanish.”
Mid-Week Focus this week takes Attentionology readers to the wonderful world of puppets.
Puppets make perfect teacher assistants!
Here’ s the most important tip that teachers need to know about using puppets as teaching assistants…
…It’s easy to do!
Small or tall, puppets instantly catch kids’ attention. Why?
The answers are many…
…Puppets are colorful, fun, funny, animated (in a teacher’s hand), life-like (with a teacher’s “puppet” voices), and lovable.
All it takes to bring a puppet to life is a little bit of hand action and a voice that’s different from your own.
No professional theater training is required!
Try these easy, magical teaching tricks with a hand puppet:
* Hold a hand puppet behind a book to hide your arm and talk to it as if it’s alive.
* Give the puppet a name and introduce it to the class.
* Explain how the puppet is part of your teaching program at the moment or how the puppet relates to helping children learn.
For example, “Bebe, ” the little brown bear you see in my blog pic above, is “having trouble learning to speak Spanish.” Children who struggle with mastering Spanish will instantly relate to “Bebe.” The puppet is a masterful teacher’s assistant!
Kids love to help puppets in need… (more…)
Barbara Cleary has been serving as a resource to hundreds of educators for more than 25 years.
An award-winning writer, producer, teacher, and trainer, Barbara’s focus is on offering easy, fun tools and tricks that support K-5 curricula and assist teachers with classroom management.
