How to use your instant puppets

Introduce the idea

Make an example before the lesson. Take the puppet character into the classroom, introduce the children to it, then encourage them to talk directly to the puppet, Elicit language by asking questions, e.g. Say Hello, What's my name?

Adaptation for a story called "Witchy and Itchy"

• Make a forgetful witch with a yoghurt pot, black card and material.
• Make up a story first, e.g. about what Witchy puts in her magic pot to make a new spell. The children should remember what she puts in her magic pot.
• Tell the chinldren Witchy needs help in collecting special ingredients for her magic spell, which she has forgotten how to make.
• Using the puppet, ask the children What must she put in the magic pot? They will ask her questions or disagree with her.
• Demonstrate how to make the puppets for Witchy and for Itchy, the cat.
• The children can make their own witches or cats.
• In pairs they can act out what Witchy is going to put in her spell and what Itchy replies.

For practice using Wh-questions or yes/no questions

• Present an exchange at the beginning of the lesson using two finger puppets.
• puppet A: Why are you writing?
• puppet B: I'm writing to my friend.
• puppet A: What are you writing?
• puppet B: I'm writing a letter.
• Negatives can be made in the exchanges as one puppet contradicts another.
• puppet A: You're writing.
• puppet B: No, I'm not writing, I'm reading.
• Children can draw a face on the first finger of their left hand.
• Divide the class into pairs. They can repeat this exercise and the dialogue can be extended if necessary.

More instant puppets

• Hand puppets

Draw a face on your clenched fist. By moving the thumb up and down you have a mouth to speak.

• Plastic cup puppets

Use a clean plastic cup. Turn it upside down and draw the face on the pot. 

Attach it to a ruler or a stick and add hair if necessary.

• Sock puppets

Put a sock on your left hand so that the fingers are in the toe area and the thumb is in the hell of the sock. This forms the mouth of the puppet.

Draw eyes and a nose with the felt-tip marker or glue buttons on for eyes. Stick cardboard ears to the back of the sock. They can be in the form of dog with long ears or a cat with small pointed ears and whiskers. A green sock can be used to make a crocodile.

• Finger puppets

Draw a face on a piece of card and stick it on your finger or draw around a shape and add pieces of material to make features.

Making instant puppets

Why are puppets useful in the primary EFL classroom?
Puppets can be used in stories, songs, chants, roleplay and pairwork. There are several pedagogical and linguistic aims behind using puppets.

• For motivation. It is fun so the children will try to speak or listen without inhibition.
• For meaning. The children will try to understand what is happening so they listen with a purpose.
• For fluency. In the desire to communicate with the puppets, the children will build up a flow of language and learn new words.
• For communication. Puppets make even the shyest child become involved, as the child is participating "out of character", e.g. using a different character from their own, or communicating with "someone" outside the normal class enviroment.
• For cross-curricular activities. Puppets can be used in most topic areas of the curriculum.
• To teach vocabulary used in a story or roleplay; parts of the face: eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, whiskers, etc.
• To teach language for making puppets, e.g. verbs: to color, to draw, to glue, to put, etc.

How to make INSTANT PUPPETS

Materials needed: cardboard, scissors, felt-tip markers, glue, scraps of fabric, ribbon and wool.

Time needed: 15-20 minutes per puppet.

The most important thing to remember when making a puppet for language teaching  is the fact that the features of the character play an important part in bringing out the person behind the puppet. You might consider make a puppet in advance to show the students what sort of puppet they will make.

1. Wooden spoon puppets

• Use a wooden spoon and draw a face on the back with felt-tip markers.
• Decorate the head of the puppet with strips of wool for hair. Use scraps of material to wrap around the handle for a cloak, etc.

2. Paper bag puppets

• Draw a face to show an expression on a paper bag and tie it around the wrist with help.

3. Toilet roll puppets (plastic cups)

• Attach a ruler or a stick to the inside af a toilet roll.
• Draw the eyes, nose and mouth with felt-tip markers and add hair if necessary.

The describing game

One of the best fluency games, this practices the vital language skills of defining and paraphrase when you don't know a word in English, e.g.
It's a place where...          It's an adjective...          It's a thing you use to...
You find it in the ...           It's an animal...              It's a person who...
You can use it to practice any vocabulary group or for general vocabulary revision.

• Put students into pairs, A and B. Students A turn round so they can't see the board. The Bs see the board.
• Write seven words on the board, e.g.

banana        Madonna        sugar        blue        twelve        a pilot       passport

• B has to describe the first word to A without using the word, and speaking only in English, e.g. It's a fruit. It's long and yellow. It comes from Africa. She's a singer. She's American. She's very rich and famous.
• A listens and guesses the word he/she thinks it is. If the guess is correct, B then defines the second word, B has to try to give a clearer definition.
• If they find it hard at first, teach them to give the first letter as a clue, e.g. It beggings with B.
• When all the pairs have finihed, the students swap roles. Write seven new words on the board and continue.

Twenty questions

This is a more advanced guessing game. Students have to guess the identity of a mystery person, practicing question formation, nationalities, jobs and adjectives.

• Play the game in groups or a class. Write the names of famous people on cards. One student draws a card and assumes that person's identity. The others have up to 20 questions to find out who it is.
• The student with the card can only answer Yes, (I am) / No, (I'm not) or I don't know. If they don´t know the question doesn't count.
• Elicit and splash on the board examples of the kind of questions students have to ask.
• The student who guesses correctly draws the next famous name, an so on.

This is also good for guessing a job, e.g. Do you work indoors/with your hands? Do you have to drive/wear a uniform? Again, practice some of the questions first.

Categories

Aims of the game:
This is a game that is good for revising lexical sets.
Playing the game.
Basic procedure:

• Choose five categories of lexix that you would like to practice with the children and then show the children how to play the game.
• Either draw a grid on the board and ask the children to copy it into their exercise books, or give the children a photocopied grid.
• Give an example of what they have to do. Elicit from the class one word for each of the categories, and write them in.
• animal    food    family    color    sport
• fish         bread  mum      red      tennis
• Then give the children three minutes (or however long you think the children need) to fill in as many words as they can. Allow them to use their coursebooks or dictionaries to help.
• Let the children compare their answers with a friend, and fill in any gaps they may have. Check the answers with the whole class and see how many words they found for each category.

Adapting for older children.

• Older children might like to play the game in teams. Divide the class into pairs or teams of four. Give each team a grid to complete.

Adapting for higher levels.

• Higher-level students might like to play the game using sequential letters of the alphabeth or even words with 2, 3, 4, etc. letters in them. Let the children use plural forms, but if you play the game this way, tell the children that not all letters have appropriate words.

Play I'd like a...

Choose a few students to come to the front of the class. Explain the game very quietly so that the rest of the class cannot hear. Students are going to say what they would like. They can choose any word they like, but it must begin with the first letter of their name. For example, Carmen can say "I'd like a coconut", but she can't say "I'd like a tomato".
Start the game: Say "I'd like a (choose a word starting with the first letter of your name)". Point to a student and ask "What would you like? Prompt them to say I'd like a...
Each time a students chooses a word incorrectly, say Oh, no (Pedro), you can't have a (coconut) but you can have a (pencil).
Give clues: Alicia would like an appple and Ernesto would like an elephant.
When students work out the trick, they shouldn't say anything but just continue playing.
Ask the students who know the trick to explain it to the rest of the class.