Puppet activity

Today on class we had made our own puppet .
We had seen that they are many ways for doing puppets .
I choose to do a sock puppet  and I decorated it with  color carboards and other materials .
And this is the final result .

I think that puppets are a very important  tool to use on a Second language accquisition class .

I´m going to give some reasons of why we should use them  as a teachers on our  English class .

Why we should use puppets on our English class?
 Puppet acts  as a mediator between the teacher and the student in many situations . 
It can help students to express their thoughts by whispering needed vocabulary into their ears .
The teacher can use the puppet to let it actively create  the lesson and its content : it can create tension , curiosity , and excitement , it can be used to impart knowledge by repeating something said or repeated wrongly so that the students had to correct it . 
The teacher can act out some sceanes while the students observe , by this students can learn how and in which situations can use language .
It can help teachers to represent the foreing language in an authentic way  . 
The puppet can only understand and speak English v , therefore students are forced to speak in English . 

 IN WHICH ACTIVITIES WE COULD USE PUPPETS?

- For introducing new vocabulary and sentences structures
- For repeating and deepening knowledge.
 -  For storytelling
- Singing songs 
 - Playing action games.
- Creating ryhmes
- For creating authentic situations through dialoges  between teacher and puppet . 


Rules for using puppets 
  a) It needs his own place in the classroom
   b) The hand you use tu impersonate the puppet should be relaxed , the wrist is the highest point so that the puppet can keep eye contact with students . 
c) The moves of the puppet should be use sparsely, depending on the size and the possible movements of the puppet . 
d) When the puppet doesn´t speak or act  the teacher should hold it on a neutral position
 e) When the puppet is speaking the mouth should move on an authentic way .

 
f) The puppet is always looking at the person that is talking to them   :
- When the teacher is talking to their pupils , the puppet is looking at the teacher. 
- When the puppet is talking to students  , the teacher is looking to the puppet . 
Teacher and puppet never look at the students at the same time . 
 - When teacher and puppet are talking to each other they also have to look to each other .  During the conversation the onlyone who is allowed to look at the children is the puppet .



 

Fable

Today on class we where told to say  at least one fable , as if we were  telling the fable to children that  belongs to infance education .

I  decided to tell the fable of the Fox and the Crow.

For doing  the actitvity more entertaining for children , I decided to perform the story .
So i gave one different voice to each character , to help students to distinguish them .
I also  decided that if i had to tell this fable to children i would also included  some gestures  , I would tell students that when they heard the word Fox  me and them had to touch their bellies and say i am very hungry .

And when they heared the word crow they would have to make the sounds of a crow and laugh .

The story is about a Fox that once saw a Crow fly off with a piece of cheese in its beak and settle on a branch of a tree.
The Fox that was very hungry told the Crow that the piece of cheese was for her , and she walked up to the foot of the tree .

The Fox to have the crow on his poket started making catcalls  to the craw .
 "How well you are looking today: how glossy your feathers; how bright your eye. I feel sure your voice must surpass that of other birds, just as your figure does; let me hear but one song from you that I may greet you as the Queen of Birds."
The Crow lifted up her head and began to sing her best, but the moment she opened her mouth the piece of cheese fell to the ground, only to be snapped up by The Fox. 
That was all I wanted. In exchange for your cheese I will give you a piece of advice for the future: "Do not trust flatterers."

Don´t trust flatters is the moral of the fable . 

The Turnip story

Today in class we were given different short stories  , we had to preparred them individually and then we had to tell them to our classmates  .
Here   i´m going to include  a summary of the story i was given , and also  I am going to explain the materials that I used to  tell the story  .

Once   upon a time  on a  farm lived a man and a woman , one day they decided to grow a  turnip on their orchand   , so the man will put the seeds and the woman will put the water .

After some days has passed the turnip was ready to  pick up ,  but by the time they were trying to get the turnip off the earth they couldn´t do it because it was too heavy .

Suddenly it appeared a girl that was walking near by  , when the girl saw the  man and the woman , she offered her help .
So know the three of them tried to get the turnip off the earth , so they pull and pull  to get the turnip off the earth but they couldn´t .
So suddenly a boy that was also  walking near by  joined them and offered his help .
So know the man , the woman , the girl  and the boy , all of them tried to get the turnip of the earth , but they couldn´t it was still being so heavy .

But by chance  there was a dog  also walking nerby , so when she saw the man , the woman ,  the girl and the boy , he decided to join them and helped them pulling the  turnip .

So again all together they pull and pull trying to get the turnip off the land ,  but the turnip was still too heavy so they couldn´t take it .

Finally it appeared a mouse and it also offered it help , at first they all reject the mouse help ,  because they told him that it was too small .
But when the mouse started crying they accepted him , so now the man , the woman , the girl , the boy , the dog and the mouse , all of them tried to get the turnip off the land .
And gess what ?

They pulll and pull , but this time with the help of all they could get the turnip off the earth .
So finally the woman decided to make a soup with the  turnip , and all of them ate it  .

I think that this could be a very good story   telling  for  infant education children , because it always has the same sctructures and repetitions .
And i found it an easy way  to explain children the proccess that plants suffers  from the moment they are plant to the moment they are picked up .
To tell the story  i used images of all the characters that the story had .
That way it is easier for children to follow the story and know what is happening and also they can distinguish between characters .