Characteristics of Puppets

We have seen the importance of using puppets in the language classroom; let’s see the characteristics of excellent puppets:

·         A puppet is an object that you can use as a human, as an animal, or as any character you want the puppet to be. These awesome creatures are animated always by a person.

·         A good puppet should be able to attract and capture the attention of the students. If the puppet has this characteristic, your students will immediately pay attention to the lesson the teacher is giving to them. Before creating the puppet, it’s necessary to make sure for what purposes you will use it, so you can make it look attractive.

 ·         A good puppet can conveys feelings and emotions as well as facts that can make students learn any kind of lesson. Make sure to use it properly and make the correct the expressions to receive good reactions from your students.

  ·         A good puppet should give the facility to do a series of movements with the hand of the person that is using it. Movements with the body, head, and the mouth.

 ·         A good puppet should give the facility to the puppeteer to involve the students in the classroom and encourage them to participate in the activities.

·        A good puppet should be more than a toy, teachers should know that a puppet is a tool to make a lesson more understandable and it is going to be used just for educational purposes

 ·         A good puppet should be versatile enough to become any character in the development of a class because they come to life as characters. They can portray different personalities and various traits and they cross all cultures.

 ·         Puppets must encourage the quietest of children to start talking.

 ·Puppets must break down barriers and provide an effective means to initiate communication.

 · 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.

   ·  A good Puppet should make the children trust in them and doesn't feel threatened by it, making it a perfect neutral medium through which they can discuss sensitive issues. 

·         A good puppet should encourage the child to express thoughts, fears and feelings through the puppet that they might otherwise find difficult to voice to an adult.

 ·         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. 

If you want to create your own puppet and develop a lesson using them you should be sure that your “new class assistant” will has all this characteristic to make its usage more easy and effective, remember that all the qualities of your puppet are going to be given by you as their creator and will be a reflection of you as teacher.

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By: Angie Barria and Roderick Mendoza

Source:http://www.creativityinstitute.com/puppetsineducation.aspx