Curriculum and Instruction

LESSON PLAN
By: Colleen Trumble
Instructor Name(s):
Colleen Trumble

Grade:
3/4

Lesson Title:
Puppetry 101

Tech Requirements: (list all materials you might need. Include special
materials like balloons and also basic classroom materials like
chalkboards).
Paper bags
Markers
Glue
Construction paper
Scissors
Slips of paper with some sort of conflict on it, to give students a head
start when creating their short plays. # of slips of paper will all depend
on number of students in class. Try and make three extra just in case.

Administrative Notes: (if relevant, include any information needed to

share with the teacher or the class).
Please do not draw on desks, each other or anything other than your
puppet. Also any mess you make, you have to clean up.

Specific Learning Objective:

Students will construct a paper bag puppet that is unique and put on a
short play for rest of the class.
Learning Objectives:
1. Students will identify what physical traits are associated with the
emotions of excitement, fear, relaxation and bravery by posing
their partners, and being put into these poses from the game
emotional puppets.
2. Students will identify what unique traits their paper bag puppet
will have by answering a handout.
3. Students will construct a paper bag puppet using the ideas they
came up with on the handout.
4. Students will use their paper bag puppets to perform a short play
to the rest of the class.

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KSA’s
1) How contextual variables affect teaching and learning
5) All students can learn, albeit at different rates in different ways
6) The purpose of short, medium and long range planning
8) Importance of respecting student’s human dignity
9) There are many approaches to teaching and learning
11) The purpose of student assessment
12) The importance of engaging parents, purposefully and
meaningfully, in all aspects of teaching and learning.
14) The importance of contributing independently and collegially to the
quality of your school
16) The importance of guiding your visions with a personal, overall
vision of the purpose of teaching.

ACTIVITIES
Name of Exercise: Expected Length: (in minutes)
Introduction 3 minutes
Purpose: (why is this exercise included in the lesson)
To tell the students a little bit about puppetry and peak their interests

Detailed instructions: (how will this exercise be explained to the

group)
Instructor will bring a few different examples of puppets to show the
class, and make up a different character for each puppet. Instructor will
also explain how students are going to get a chance to make their own
puppets.

Name of Exercise: Expected Length: (in minutes)

Emotional Puppets 5 minutes
Purpose: (why is this exercise included in the lesson)
To let the students find out how it feels to be the puppet and the
puppeteer in a kinesthetic way.

Detailed instructions: (how will this exercise be explained to the

group)
1. Instructor will ask students to pair up
2. Then instructor will ask one student to be “A” and one student to
be “B”
3. The “A”’s will be the first puppets, they will stand perfectly still
4. The “B”’s will be the puppeteers
5. The instructor will explain that she/he will give an emotion, and
then the “B”s must shape the A’s into the emotion given, by
communication with them, and moving the A’s into the body
position. Emotions will be excited and scared.
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 6. Students will be reminded to steer clear of touching any bathing
suit zones and to be gentle, because the roles will be reversed
afterwards.
7. Instructor will give 3 minutes for the B’s to shape the A’s and then
ask them to freeze
8. A’s will freeze while all of the B’s walk around and admire each
other’s work. Emotions will be relaxed and brave
9. The roles will be switched the same instructions carried out.
10.*option* if available, music might be played during this as long as
it matches whatever mood is given.

Name of Exercise: Expected Length: (in minutes)

Creating a puppet 30 minutes
Purpose: (why is this exercise included in the lesson)
To create an individual puppet for each student

Detailed instructions: (how will this exercise be explained to the

group)
1) Students will be shown examples of different characters by the
teacher, and they will be shown her example of a paper bag
puppet
2) Teacher will then hand out a question sheet, on this sheet there
will be a variety of questions consisting of:
Is your puppet human? Or animal? Or something completely
different? How old is your puppet?
Is your puppet a boy or a girl?
What does your puppet look like?
Does your puppet have any defining features?
Is your puppet mean? Nice? Happy? Sad?
Does your puppet have a lot of friends? Or do they prefer to be
alone?
What is your puppet’s favorite food?
What does your puppet like to do for fun?
What is your puppet’s name?

3) As the students are answering these questions, the instructor will

set out glue, scissors, pencil crayons, markers, construction paper
and paper bags.
4) The students will be told that when they are finished their
handout, they may quietly come up to the table, pick out a paper
bag and a few supplies to start on making their puppet.
5) As students are making their puppets, the teacher will play some
soft music in the background.
6) Once they are done, they will be asked to find a partner who is
also finished, and introduce their puppet to their partner’s puppet
and vice versa. The students can continue introducing their

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 puppets to other students until everyone is finished constructing
their puppet
7) Once everyone is done, then the class will be asked to sit in a
circle, and go around the circle introducing their puppet to the
class and then getting their puppet to say hi. (thereby having the
students practice moving the puppets mouth in time with their
own)

Name of Exercise: Expected Length: (in minutes)

The show must go on! 15 minutes
Purpose: (why is this exercise included in the lesson)
To show the instructor what the children have learned from today’s
lesson

Detailed instructions: (how will this exercise be explained to the

group)
1) Students will be split into groups of three
2) Students will be given pointers with how to use puppets (what
level to keep their arms at, trying to move the puppets mouth at
the same time as their own)
3) Students will be given a simple conflict to act out among their
group on a small slip of paper
4) Once they are given the scenes, students will have 5 minutes to
rehearse this scene amongst themselves
5) Then they will be asked to present their scene to the class and
the instructor.
6) Instructor will ask for a huge, loud thunderous roar of applause
after every scene.

Name of Exercise: Expected Length: (in minutes)

Closing 5 min
Purpose: (why is this exercise included in the lesson)
To make sure that students have learned about puppetry from todays
lesson

Detailed instructions: (how will this exercise be explained to the

group)

• Instructor will ask students how it felt to be the puppets and how
it felt to be the puppeteers for the game emotional puppets.
Instructor will also ask if the students felt connected to their
puppet, and if they found that putting on a play for their peers
was easier when the puppet was doing it as opposed to

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 themselves.
• Instructor will then ask class to take their puppet home with
them, and introduce their puppet to their mom, dad or caregiver.

Sponge Activities: Expected Length: (in minutes)

Poem Writing N/A

Purpose: (why is this exercise included in the lesson)

To fill extra time if students finish quickly.

Detailed instructions: (how will this exercise be explained to the

group)
• Ask the students to write a rhyming 4 line poem, however they
are to write the poem from their puppets point of view. Like the
puppet is writing the poem.
• Instructor will write an example on the board of a poem, and ask
children to make of their own
• Perhaps another class, the children will be able to have their
puppets recite their poems to the class
• This will show improvement because the child is going up
individually in front of the class to recite their poem, and if they
are gaining confidence to do this, then progress is being made.
• Children will have their puppets recite the poem they wrote to the
class
• Class will have a thunderous applause for everyone.

Differentiated Activity: Expected Length: (in minutes)

Emotional Puppets
Purpose: (why is this exercise included in the lesson)
So that if a student has a problem with doing this activity for whatever
reason, there is still someone else for them to do.

Detailed instructions: (how will this exercise be explained to the

group)
• If a student is not able to participate in this activity due to not
feeling comfortable with being touched, or if they are disabled,
then instead of having another student move them, the aid will
move them based on simply talking and nothing more.
• If students are still uncomfortable with that, they will be asked to
work alone and simply freeze in a position that they find suitable
to the emotion given.

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 • If none of those options are possible, the child might be asked to
be the judge of the class, and pick out the top three puppets for
each round.

Differentiated Activity: Expected Length: (in minutes)

On with the show N/A
Purpose: (why is this exercise included in the lesson)
An option for students who are not comfortable talking in front of the
class at all.

Detailed instructions: (how will this exercise be explained to the

group)
• They will either be responsible for making sound effects for the
scene in their group, or they can be responsible for drawing a
setting by using a piece of white paper and markers.
• If a student breaks their puppet, they will have to use one of the
teachers for their show.

Comments

Conflict Ideas:

One of the puppets has lost something extremely valuable to them, how are
the other puppets going to help find it?

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There is only one cookie left and all of the puppets want it, how are they
going to resolve this?

One puppet is caught cheating off of another puppet during a test, what is
going to happen next?

The puppets are all on vacation when they realize the hotel they are staying
at is haunted! What are they going to do about it?

There is a school dance coming up, and your puppets do not know how to
dance! What are they going to do?

Your puppets have been sent on a dangerous expedition to retrieve a golden

statue, what happens along the way?

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 Creating a Puppet
Congratulations class! You are now about to embark on a fantastic new
journey of creating your own paper bag puppet character! First however, you
need to figure out exactly who your paper bag puppet will be. Grade 3’s,
please answer the following questions in your neatest printing. Grade 4’s,
please answer the following questions in your neatest handwriting.

1) Is your puppet human? Or animal? Or something completely different?

2) How old is your puppet?

3) Is your puppet a boy or a girl?

4) What does your puppet look like?

5) Does your puppet have any defining features?

6) Is your puppet mean? Nice? Happy? Sad? What kind of personality do

they have?

7) Does your puppet have a lot of friends? Or do they prefer to be alone?

8) What is your puppet’s favorite food?

9) What does your puppet like to do for fun?

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10) What is your puppet’s name?