Thursday, April 11, 2013

Puppet Center in the Library

This year I added a puppet center to the South Prairie Elementary Library. Did it take a little bit of work to build....yes. Does it sometimes make my library a little noisy....yes (especially with the killer whale and alligator puppet!) Do the kids love it and tell stories - YES!

I love watching the kids interact with each other and tell stories to each other. A clever group of first graders realized that I had an elephant and a pig puppet and decided to put on plays based on Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie books!

See the pictures below!

Thank you to my husband, who helped build the puppet stage!

Many teachers donated puppets to this center.

3 comments:

  1. Melissa, I've been a librarian for 14 years and this is the first year I've used puppets. GASP! This week my 2nd graders read from "You read to me, and I'll read to you: very short Mother Goose tales to read together" by Mary Ann Hoberman. I had 2 students reading and 2-3 students acting out the nursery rhyme. They loved it. I'll try to post about it Monday. I left the pictures at school.
    http://mrsbrownthebookworm.blogspot.com/

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    Replies
    1. I love this idea! Please post about it! This would be a fun end of the year activity- especially on those days where I've stopped check out. I have a few of those You Read to Me books...the kids really like them.

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  2. I love it! I used to have a very large puppet theater at a previous school, but don't have one where I am now. My puppets get very little use. I love the basket you have for them. It makes me realize that in the past I probably gave students too many choices and it turned the center into more playtime than I would have liked. Would you consider a follow-up post with general building directions for your theater?

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