Puppets in Education

The Muppets

Puppets are an aspect of our history and everyday lives. From marionettes to the Muppets we see them on television, on videos or in live performances. In their different forms they appeal to both old and young alike, represent different customs and traditions and are valuable educational tools. Puppets are both entertaining and captivating. Children can believe and relate to them; they can enter and explore the fascinating inventive world that puppets create.

Learning through play is fundamental to our children’s education, helping them to develop the necessary skills in life. Puppets can stimulate children’s imagination, encourage creative play and discovery and are a wonderful interactive way to introduce narrative to even the most reluctant reader. They can be a powerful way of bringing story time to life; puppets can provide a focus for role play, encouraging the child’s imagination and involvement in activities and can play a fundamental part in the recitation of stories and verse. In addition, hand puppets with workable mouths and tongues are an excellent motivational resource to inspire the teaching of phonics within literacy.

Puppets encourage speech & language development

Any puppet can encourage the quietest of children to start talking. Puppets can break down barriers and provide an effective means to initiate communication. The child trusts the puppet and doesn’t feel threatened by it, making it a perfect neutral medium through which they can discuss sensitive issues. The child can express thoughts, fears and feelings through the puppet that they might otherwise find difficult to voice to an adult.

Puppets can assist children with special educational needs. They can motivate and support children with difficulties in communication and interaction. They can help to develop their social and motor skills, and can meet the visual, tactile and emotional needs of the individual child. Large human puppets with glove hands and fingers can be used in conjunction with the different varieties of signing, adding a further dimension in helping children with both hearing difficulties and learning disabilities.

All puppets come to life as characters. They can portray different personalities and various traits and they cross all cultures. Puppets can share joy or sadness; they can be naughty or good, cheeky or shy; and when a child is engaged by a puppet they can learn lessons without even realising.

Puppets provide an essential link between learning and play which makes them wonderful teaching tools for at home, the classroom and in the wider community.

With our thanks to the original author A. Greensmith

http://www.creativityinstitute.com

For a fantastic range of animal and character finger puppets, hand & glove puppets, visit our Puppets To You website. www.puppetstoyou.com

The team here at Puppets To You have been busy since the festive period replenishing and extending our range of puppets, focusing on our current range of Hand Puppets. We have extended the range we offer from Fiesta Crafts and The Puppet Company including yet more animal long sleeved hand puppets and more tellatale characher hand puppets.

We love the extended range of animal hand puppets including the new tiger hand puppet and cow hand puppet. As usual from The Puppet Company, these are beautiful and soft and large enough to fit an adult hand.

We have decided to offer our popular Tellatale Royalty Hand Puppets individually as well as in a set so you can now buy the King Hand Puppet, Queen Hand Puppet, Prince Hand Puppet and Princess Hand Puppet individually.

Starting from only £9.00, our Hand Puppet range is an ideal purchase for your own children or as a gift for someone elses!

from dragons to romans, lobsters to pirates we have incorporated popular character finger puppets as well as animal finger puppets into our collection

this is in direct response to customers requests so if theres anything you’d like to see just let us know by emailing us at info@puppetstoyou.com!

these a hit with any young child. Our range has now increased to over 30 Tellatale Hand Puppets from the popular Peter Pan hand puppet to the scary (but rather cute) red dragon.

Designed for children aged 3 and up these hand puppets are great for re-enacting famous fairy

tales or even letting their imaginations run wild making up stories of their very own. These puppets are not only great fun but also have a development benefit by encouraging interpersonal skills and confidence in younger children.

Our top 3 hand puppets from this range are, 1 Pirate, 2 Snow White and 3 Alladdin:

The new puppet scripts include:

• Jack and the Beanstalk Puppet Script
• Little Red Riding Hood Puppet Script
• The Three Little Pigs Puppet Script
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears Puppet Script

All Puppets To You scripts can be found on the main website here.

A blog dedicated to all things puppet related. Over the coming months we will be updating the blog, providing a wealth of puppet related information. Including details of new puppets, puppet reviews, puppet related sites and some great puppet related resources.

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