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Goal

This project has 2 goals: 1) to supply 5 kindergarten classrooms with hand and finger puppets to help integrate language/literacy skills with play 2) to support students as they enter Kindergarten to develop social/emotional, physical, and cognitive skills through the use of puppets. The puppets will include wild animals and farm animals along with multi-racial boys, girls, women and men. 

What will be done with my students

Project Description: This puppet project will be coordinated by Darla Perry, MS, Elementary Education. This project will be implemented in every kindergarten classroom (5) during the 2018-2019 school year. Lake Park Elementary School kindergarten teachers will encourage student participation in a variety of puppet activities during CORE reading time (on the carpet),at literacy centers (moving in rotations around the room to 4 different places), and at choice center time at the end of the day. Background: We have found that students often enter Kindergarten feeling shy, nervous, or scared. Puppet play can help 5 and 6 year-year olds adjust to a new environment, and support learning in several areas of development. Each kindergarten (K) class at Lake Park Elementary has approximately 19 students. A typical day includes: group learning seated on a carpet, individual work at desks, centers where students rotate through stations to learn different skills (technology, writing, reading, listening, vocabulary, etc.) We hope to encourage and strengthen the cognitive, physical, social and emotional needs of all our students through the use of puppets in both formal (teacher directed during CORE reading time) and informal (student directed during literacy centers and student choice centers) settings.
Process: During instructional and center times, teachers will assist students in the development of language skills by having them ask and answer questions about a story in complete sentences, by orally retelling a story, and by encouraging speaking and listening skills via interactions with other puppeteers. Children will learn to share, take turns, be patient, and relate to others’ feelings to help with their social/emotional development. Cognitive development will be enhanced when they tell and act out stories, show imagination and creativity, and think abstractly. For Physical development, moving the puppet’s arms, and head will help with fine and gross motor skills, eye-hand coordination and balance. Each teacher will incorporate the use of puppets into their weekly instructional plans. In our weekly newsletter, parents will be invited to share ideas of how we can incorporate puppet play in the classroom as well as at home, and the children will be encouraged to bring in puppets (purchased, hand-made, or gifted) for Share Time (Show and Tell). At the end of the school year, student, teacher, and parent feedback about the use of the puppets will be gathered (orally, written or both). This will be a way of determining how often the puppets were selected for use by the students during choice centers, as well as how often the Kindergarten team used the puppets while teaching.
The puppets will be placed in a specific location in each classroom, easily accessible to the children. Rules will be established for proper care and storage of the puppets.
During the course of the school year, this project will encompass at least 15 learning standards in a variety of subject areas as indicated below:
STANDARDS:
Reading, Language, Social Studies
LAFS.K.RL.1.2 With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
LAFS.K.RL.1.3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
LAFS.K.RI.4.10 Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
LAFS.K.SL.1.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
LAFS.K.SL.2.6 Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
LAFS.K.L.3.6 Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.
SS.K.A.2.4 Listen to and retell stories about people in the past who have shown character ideals and principles including honesty, courage, and responsibility.
SS.K.C.2.2 Demonstrate that conflicts among friends can be resolved in ways that are consistent with being a good citizen.
DA.B.1.1.1. The student understands how gestures and movement communicate meaning.
Music, Theatre and Visual Arts
MU.A.1.1.1.K.3. The student demonstrates healthy use of the singing, speaking, whispering, and calling voice with appropriate volume for the young child.
MU.D.2.1.2. The student knows how to offer simple, constructive suggestions for the improvement of his or her own and others' performances.
MU.E.2.1.2.K.1. The student demonstrates appropriate audience behavior in such settings as classroom and school performances (for example, listening quietly during a performance, clapping at the end).
TH.A.2.1.1. The student communicates with others ideas about characterization and plot development within dramatic-play activities.
TH.C.1.1.1. The student expresses remembered ideas, feelings, and concepts of common daily activities through dramatic play.
TH.D.1.1.5. The student understands the similarities and differences between play acting, pretending, and real life.
VA.A.1.1.1.K.1. The student creates works that are personally meaningful and draw from experience, observation, or imagination.
VA.E.1.1. The student makes connections between the visual arts, other disciplines, and the real world.


 

Benefits to my students

This project will benefit all 5 kindergarten classrooms, 5 teachers and 1 teacher assistant and approximately 95 students. The children love read-aloud time and when puppets are added, the response is amazing! Puppets are a great way to link literature with storytelling. Using puppets, the students can learn to speak clearly when performing, to demonstrate positive characteristics and responsibilities of an audience during puppet presentations, learn responsibility (for making and managing puppet choices), and to more easily understand the specific Kindergarten standards mentioned earlier. The puppets offer a variety of learning opportunities and fun for our students. They can express feelings and emotions through puppets that may be difficult to talk about directly. Puppets can be used to role play issues such as how to be kind and helpful, how to deal with a bully, or how to solve problems. Stories come to life using puppets by entertaining and capturing a child’s attention, strengthening listening skills, and improving self-confidence when speaking aloud.  

Budget Narrative

The budget lists a variety of hand and finger puppets to be supplied to each of 5 kindergarten classrooms. Each classroom will receive 13 hand puppets, and 10 finger puppets to help create their puppet/drama center. While the initial puppet purchase will be an average investment of $3.42 per child, the puppets will be used in the classroom for years to come. I checked different online retailers for prices (Oriental Trading, Amazon Prime, Target, Walmart). Amazon Prime had the lowest prices as of this date, with the advantage that the puppet items can be ordered from one online retailer with free shipping.
 

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