Creative Puppetry: Promoting Early Literacy in Storytimes

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Fee: $75 for those in the California library community. Your invoice will be mailed to the billing address you provide when you register. Payment is due within 30 days.  If you have any questions about your invoice or payment please contact Gini Ambrosino at assist@infopeople.org

Course Instructor: Colleen Willis

When puppets and stories come together, the effects can be magical. The performer quickly fades into the background while the characters become the center of attention. Storytelling with puppets adds a silly twist to retelling stories and can help children develop language and literacy skills. Learning to retell stories with puppets helps to build comprehension skills, develop vocabulary, practice communication skills and brings imaginations to life. The best approach to puppetry is to be fearless. Be willing to try anything. The art of puppetry is wonderfully flexible and will give you a fresh and fun learning environment.

Workshop Description: This all-day hands-on workshop will demonstrate how to effectively incorporate puppets into early literacy programming and give you the tools to select puppet activities appropriate for your audience. Through individual and group exercises you will learn how to connect puppets with fingerplays, nursery rhymes and music. You will transform your favorite story into a puppet script and practice your performance skills. You will complete a simple puppet craft that will jumpstart your program planning. The instructor will provide; sample ideas for music, rhymes, fingerplays, books and scripts, a webliography and practical useful tips that can be applied immediately. Please feel free to bring a special puppet to share with the class.

Pre-workshop assignment: Bring a picture book you think would be good to adapt into a puppet play.

Preliminary Course Outline

  • Creative Puppetry
    • History of puppets
    • Puppets and literacy
    • Age appropriate activities
    • Puppets and poetry
  • Puppet Play
    • Types of puppets
    • Puppets and books
    • Puppets and music
    • Puppets and flannel boards
  • Tips and Techniques
    • How to choose a puppet
    • Where to find puppets
    • Puppet performance techniques
    • Formula for a script
  • Showtime
    • Enhancing language art skills
    • Puppets and crafts
    • Puppet corner
    • Perform a puppet show

Who Should Attend: Anyone from the California library community with an interest in incorporating early-literacy-based, creative puppetry into storytelling programs.

Prerequisites: None

Check-in: 8:30 to 9:00 AM Instruction: 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM

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