…I don't mean the set of puppets with optional puppet show apparatus that sits in or near dramatic play. Though that's great, if you have those!
I'm talking about a "Teacher Puppet" or a "Class Puppet".
A puppet that you, as the adult, manipulate....and, only you use.
This is something I learned to do way back in the day from some of my co-workers.
(Not something that was ever spoken about in any of my many early childhood courses, interestingly. I tried to change that for my students when I was a professor.)
I watched Teacher Eiko manipulate a parrot she called Peace and demonstrate to the children how to resolve conflicts with friends.
Eiko had her standard set of conflicts that she and Peace role-played each year, asking the children to help Peace decide how to solve his problems.
She also watched for conflicts that arose in our classroom, changed the details slightly and presented them as Peace's dilemmas during group time.
The children sat with rapt attention unlike anything I ever saw when we read them a book.
Eiko also introduced another puppet, Minako to the children at the beginning of each school year.
As the story went it was Minako's first time coming to preschool! Just as was true for many of our 3-year-olds.
We learned about who lived at Minako's house with her, who brought her to school, and how she felt this new experience (excited, scared, missing mom...)
The children related to Minako.
They seemed to see their lives in her, even when details differed.
The children developed a relationship with this puppet that was so very full of life and personality.
As the year went on Minako shared big feelings about her new baby sister...moving to a new house...a friend who's parents were divorcing...and many other life circumstances.
Minako sharing her experiences with us gave the children a way to talk about the experiences in their lives. Each year Eiko put new experiences on Minako to reflect what was going on with that particular group of children, always changing details enough so that the scenarios were not exactly the same.
Minako even spoke to us about her trials and tribulations in our classroom.
One day she got a small cut on her finger because she reached into the basket of scissors and some of them were open not closed.
What should we do to make sure that doesn't happen again?
Of course she also had problems with a friend saying she couldn't come to her birthday party, an incident where no one would share play-dough, and almost every other common preschool problem you can imagine...as well as some really unique ones that actually happened in our classroom like someone taking her spare underwear from her bathroom basket and putting them inside her mitten in her cubby.
Eiko taught me that the possibilities of nurturing empathy and problem solving by using the puppet were truly endless.
There seemed to be no life circumstance or classroom challenge that Minako and Peace couldn't help us with.
Part of what made the puppets so magical is that the children never played with Minako or Peace. They sat on a high shelf in special baskets and Minako only brought them down to talk to us at group time or occasionally to say we were too loud during center time.
That's one of the key ingredients to being successful with a "Teacher Puppet" - only the teacher(s) manipulate them.
I wonder...
What would Minako and Peace have to share about during the past 5 months?
How could they help us cope? ...recognize and process our emotions? ...understand new rules for keeping ourselves and others safe?
I wonder what might be on Minako's and Peace's hearts and minds these days...
Do you use a puppet in any of the ways I've described here? If yes please share your experiences. If not, that's holding you back from giving it a try?
Let me know in the comments below…
And, actually, now that I think about it, maybe Minako was a soft stuffed doll that seemed to come to life without the whole put-your-hand-in-and-move-it-about situation. It was over 20 years ago so it's hard to remember!
Which shows you don't need the perfect puppet - or maybe even a puppet at all - to get started with Teacher Puppets.
Start tweaking what you do at circle time, story time, morning meeting, group time and other teacher-led large group experiences!
