Using puppets for literature response

[ltracy]

My kindergarten class has been involved in a study of squirrels. In the fall they collected sacks of acorns that had fallen from the trees on the playground. We saved them, knowing they might somehow come in handy later. The squirrel study has drawn children's interest back to their acorns. They wondered if people could eat acorns like squirrels do. We did a little research and found out that many throughout history have dined on acorns. The children are busily cracking the shells in hopes of having enough usable acorns to process into flour and then acorn bread.
Making acorn bread is a lot of work. I'm hoping to introduce them to the tale of the Little Red Hen, encourage them to compare making acorn bread to the work of the Little Red Hen and to eventually invite them to create puppets for dramatizing their acorn bread tale. The children haven't had a lot of experience yet with making their own puppets - any ideas?

Laura Tracy

[papertalker]

Sorry for the tardy response. I had hoped that others might reply. So this is something you might save for next year's squirrel unit.

In the pattern library please find the squirrel. Take the basic shape of an acorn and attach it (hat and all) to the hinge to make an acorn puppet.

Using the basic interview format, you can bring out endless characters or concepts that tie in even casually to the winter preparation and survival themes.

With young children, it will not hurt to pre-cut some of the parts so that the creativity flows from the ease of assembly of parts to the hinge. The puppets they make may be similar but they can have all kinds of details that make them unique.

Young children who are first time builders using the hinge need only two or three times to make the hinge 'their own.'

The more fun the teacher has with creating variations, the more easily kids will pick up on the process.