Puppets for Teachers

Puppets in the classroom

If you are thinking about using puppets in your classroom then here is some simple guidance:

• Keep the puppet’s head down - it needs to make eye contact
• They don’t need a special voice or a distinctive accent
• Left or right hand? - try both and see which suits you best
• Speak slowly to give yourself thinking time
• Think about your puppet’s character - how it will act and what it will say
• It’s better when they have emotions and act in character
• Your puppet needs to present a problem to the children for them to think about.

Puppets work especially well when they are involved in a story where they have a problem to solve. Children will want to help the puppets by solving the problem. At the end of the story the children can talk directly to the puppet about how they think they can solve the problem.

Puppets and stories

Stories to help you use puppets effectively in science are available from Millgate House. Click on Resources to see examples of these stories. The stories and puppets are designed to complement each other.

Puppets work especially well when they are involved in a story where they have a problem to solve. Children will want to help the puppets by solving the problem. At the end of the story the children can talk directly to the puppet about how they think they can solve the problem.

If you want to purchase puppets for your school then you can obtain puppets from:

Millgate House Education Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1270 764314
Fax: +44 (0)5601 156500
Email: info@millgatehouse.co.uk
Website: www.millgatehouse.co.uk

Stories to help you use puppets effectively in science are also available from Millgate House. Click on Resources to see examples of these stories.

Courses about puppets

If you want to find out more about using puppets for science then we offer courses to help you. Most of them are organised through Local Authorities, Science Learning Centres and the Association for Science Education. If you want to get involved in the training then contact your Science Adviser first. You can see a list of courses that we will be running if you click on Courses. You can also contact us directly to discuss possibilities.