Some ideas on how to use puppets with early years

In this section I’ll be adding more and more activities to do with your puppet over time, I’ll start here with some things to do with the very young learners. I’ll use Charlie as an example – obviously use your own puppet!!

Controlling the noise in the classroom (very young learners)
Tell the class that Charlie can’t sleep/ or put Charlie to bed and ask the class to be quiet. Or if you’re reading a story, put Charlie in a place where he can see/listen and if the class get to noisy/boisterous tell the class that Charlie can’t hear the story.

Pass the puppet (very young learners)

Similar to pass the parcel. Sit the class in a circle, play some music, when the music stops the student says “Good morning Charlie” or whatever phrase/or word you want to practise.

Listen and repeat
You say a word/phrase. Then look at the puppet and the puppet says the same word/phrase in a slightly different voice. Finally the students repeat the word/phrase. In this case, they’ve heard the sentence/phrase a couple of times more before attempting to repeat it. It’s a type of choral drill, but repeating after the puppet makes the activity more fun.

Echo
You say something, a phrase/a word the puppet says something and the it’s repeated 3 or 4 times quieter and quieter (like an echo)

Using a puppet to choose a student
Instead of choosing a student yourself, get the puppet to do it. Possibly with a phrase “Red, yellow green and blue, the student that I choose is YOU” and the puppet points to the person.

Hide and Seek
Send a student outside, hide a finger puppet somewhere in the class, when the the student returns play hot and cold. ‘Cold’ – when the student is near the puppet then ‘warm’ if the student is near and he/she is very near ‘hot’. For the infants, you can use clapping instead. When far away, clap lightly and slowly and when nearer to the puppet more loudly and vigorously.

Songs
Tell the students how much your puppet enjoys music. Charlie brings out a tambourine/drum to beat and keep time with the song or uses a pencil to conduct the song – lift the pen higher to increase the volume, lower to decrease the volume.