Using puppets in the Primary Language Classroom

Sarah Hillyard

Using Puppets in the Primary Language Classroom This guide is intended to provide some practical ideas for teaching English with ‘Tiger’, a hand puppet that accompanies Primary teachers using Macmillan’s Tiger Time, Levels 1 & 2.

Why use puppets Puppets are a very powerful tool and a versatile resource in the young learner language classroom. They ‘come to life’ as real members of the group, fostering a supportive and friendly environment and increasing engagement and participation. For some children, a puppet is a turning point in their attitudes towards English lessons; they feel happier, more secure and confident in the presence of a puppet. It is as though the focus is taken away from the child as all eyes are on the puppet. Puppets have an additional advantage in EFL settings as they perform the role of foreign language speakers. A language-rich environment is enhanced by the appearance of a second expert in the language, apart from the teacher, with whom children build an emotional bond. Puppets allow for a variety of uses with clear benefits for both the teacher and the young learner in the English classroom. They can be used to: • Captivate students’ attention. • Supply visual support to enhance meaning of the language. • Build natural situations for modelling and practicing language. • Encourage fun and interactive exchanges to stimulate communication in English. • Build students’ confidence and boost motivation. • Create a pleasant classroom atmosphere. • Reinforce classroom management strategies.

Basic tips for using puppets • Maintain eye contact between the puppet and the children. Make sure the puppet looks from one student to another. • Watch the puppet while you are animating it in order to focus students’ attention on the puppet. Your students will look where you’re looking. • Have a ‘home’ that the puppet can come out of and hide back into: a special bag, box or tin. • Sustain the illusion of the ‘real’ puppet; don’t let your students see it ‘not working’. Children really believe in a puppet and will connect emotionally with it. The magic fades away if they see a lifeless puppet. • Change the puppet’s role to suit the activity: • Puppet as Teaching Assistant (Slattery, 2008): a fluent English speaker for increasing language learning. • Puppet as Learner: a student who still has a lot to learn; is puzzled, asks questions and needs to review information offering real information gaps. As far as the children are concerned, the puppet honestly does not know the answer.

MEET Tiger! Hello everyone! I’m Tiger. I’m on holiday. I speak English and I come from England. I’m black and orange. I can jump, run and roar, too. I sometimes get a little confused as I have a bad memory. I like being held by my friends and being spoken to. I can be a great helper and a very good friend!

To create a connection between the children and the puppet, it needs to have a distinct identity, a personality and a history; details that will bring it to life. Tell the children about Tiger’s family and friends. Talk about his likes and dislikes and what he did at the weekend. The box above gives a possible outline of who Tiger is.

Tiger is what we call a ‘no-mouth’ hand puppet. However, this does not mean that Tiger cannot speak or communicate and it raises the question of how you would like Tiger to interact in class: • Tiger could be a silent puppet that whispers in the teacher’s ear. The teacher tells the students what the puppet whispered. • Tiger can be a good writer and he can leave notes or labels around the classroom or he can write a question or what he’s thinking on the board. • Even if Tiger doesn’t have a moving mouth, you can still give him a voice, as if you were pretending that a stuffed animal was speaking. • Tiger might also roar, with the teacher being the only one who understands ‘tiger language’! He can say things through a roar for the teacher to translate, which allows for some humorous interchanges. Perhaps he roars when something is wrong: when he identifies a mistake (deliberately) made by the teacher or when children are misbehaving. Even if you decide that Tiger will be a ‘silent’ puppet, he is not really as ‘silent’ as he may seem. Puppets are very expressive through their bodies, too. Tiger can wave his hands, shake children’s hands, give kisses and hugs, nod and shake his head, look around, scratch his eyes, nose or cheek with his paws. Some useful gestures for the classroom are: putting his paw to his ear as though signalling to the children to speak up, raising his hand or placing his finger on his mouth asking for silence. He can participate as student or offer additional visual support for concepts or instructions by acting out, demonstrating, pointing, sequencing or holding objects. 3

Using Tiger with Tiger Time! Tiger’s word chants: In every unit, Tiger can stick the flashcards for the chant on the board and write numbers 1-8 underneath. Play the audio so he dances while pointing to the items. Ask the children to point with Tiger. Then... • Pause the audio after the number for the children to say the items. Children then take turns holding Tiger and naming all the items in the chant. • Once you think the children know the items well enough, allow Tiger to rely on his bad memory to get the items wrong or place them in the wrong order. By doing this, you encourage children to correct him, giving them a real reason to use the English language. Dialogues and role-plays: Conduct dialogues and role-plays between Tiger and a child, always demonstrating first. Some role-plays involve cut-outs or the Ping and Pong puppets, both characters in the series. E.g. Tiger holds out his hand and says, ‘I’ve got a sore hand. Can you help me, please?’ (TT1, Unit 5). The children respond ‘No, sorry. I can’t.’ or ‘Yes, of course I can.’, and then extend to other parts of the body: ‘I’ve got a sore leg.’ The children do the role-play in pairs as themselves, as Tiger, or as another character and then change roles.

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Tiger Phonics: After identifying and practicing the common sound in the tongue twister, children count how many times they hear the sound. A child holds Tiger and gives the answer. If the answer is not correct, it’s Tiger’s fault. This may turn into a game in which the children will often want to make mistakes purposefully just for a laugh. Tiger then says the tongue twister in a way that is not correct. E.g. Instead of ‘Ricky rabbit runs round and round the room’, Tiger changes it to ‘Ricky frog runs round and round the room’ to develop phonemic awareness as children have to listen for the odd-sound-out.

Stories: • Tiger dramatizes while listening to the story as a way to support meaning. Then, he looks a little puzzled and asks the children comprehension questions. • Tiger Values: Get Tiger to read out the speech bubbles in the book: e.g. ‘Be kind to your friends’. • Play ‘Observation’: Children have thirty seconds to look at a unit’s story and remember its details (e.g. colours/food). With books closed, Tiger asks questions, e.g. ‘What colour is the parrot?’ ‘What do lizards eat?’

Other games and activities with Tiger Make a photo album for Tiger to present different themes and describe the photos. Take photos of Tiger doing a variety of actions in different rooms of the house or places in the neighbourhood with different family members or animal friends, wearing clothes for different weather, etc. Role-play taking Tiger to the doctor. You can use a toy Doctor’s kit or bring in a ‘bandage’ (a strip of toilet paper or piece of white ribbon). Children will genuinely want to help Tiger get better by asking him what’s wrong and placing the bandage on different parts of his body. Make different items of clothing out of newspaper or felt and dress Tiger differently each day depending on the weather. He could have an umbrella, sunglasses or wear a costume for Halloween or a Santa hat for Christmas time. Place Tiger on different parts of a poster of a house and ask children to ‘Place Tiger in the bedroom.’, for example and then ask ‘Where’s Tiger?’ Tell a short story moving Tiger around the house, such as ‘Tiger was sleeping in his bedroom. He woke up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. He went to the kitchen and prepared breakfast.’ On another opportunity he could do a funny sketch where he brushes his teeth in his bedroom and prepares breakfast in the bathroom, and so forth. When introducing prepositions put an item or prop on your desk or the floor and ask Tiger to demonstrate placing it in, on, under, in front of or behind his ‘special home’/an empty box, bag, basket or chair by giving instructions, like: ‘Tiger, can you put the apple on/in/under the box please?’ Then get the children to do it (either using Tiger or their own hand-made puppets), and say something like: ‘Now let’s put our puppets under our tables. OK, everyone, where are our puppets?’ Do this a few times until you feel children are familiar with the language before Tiger makes a mistake again! Conduct a competition between Tiger and a child as to who can put an item in the box the quickest. Actions: Play ‘Freeze game’ by playing some music for Tiger to perform an action and when the music stops, Tiger freezes for the children to say what action he was performing. Spelling: Every time the teacher makes a (deliberate) mistake on the board, Tiger roars to alert the children to find out what it is.

In order to teach children how to ask questions, Tiger might be tired that day or feel shy and doesn’t feel like speaking, so he only roars. Pretend you don’t understand what Tiger is saying and elicit questions from the children. The exchange could go something like this:

(Tiger roars)

Children: (Children ask questions, like...) Do you want a snack? Do you want to take a nap? Are you tired? (Tiger nods or shakes his head and children ask some more questions. Tiger whispers to the teacher).

Teacher: What? (Tiger roars again) I don’t understand Tiger! What do you want? (Tiger roars again) Does anyone understand ‘tiger language’? Do you know what he’s trying to say?

Teacher: Oh! You want to show the children your favourite book! (Tiger nods) Which is your favourite book Tiger? (Tiger whispers) Ah... Tiger’s favourite book is ‘Tiger Time’. Tiger, can you please bring it out? (Tiger goes to where you keep your book: on your desk/shelf/in your cupboard, but appears to not be finding it. He looks at the children with a puzzled look, then searches, looks up at the children again, and searches. He roars). Do you need some help? (Tiger nods and the teacher helps find the book). Pull… pull… Ohhh!!! Here it comes! (bring out the book together with Tiger). That’s a big book for you! There, we’ve got it!

Children ask Tiger personal information or other questions like: What’s your favourite colour? What’s the weather like? Where’s your book? Are you sad? Keep Tiger real by teaching functional language for authentic communicative exchanges when greeting Tiger every day. You might have to wake Tiger up. Make snoring sounds and say ‘Wake up! It looks like he’s sleeping... Tiger, wake up!’ When he comes out, make a yawning sound. Tiger might pop in and out of various locations other than his special ‘house’: from behind you, behind a wall or a window, a table or a chair and the exchange could go something like this:

Hello Tiger! (looking inside his house)

Good morning Tiger! (The teacher can’t find him)

Tiger, where are you? (When Tiger pops out of different places the children will probably start shouting out indicating that they have seen him. The teacher keeps looking and calling for Tiger to come out until she catches him).

There you are!

Flashcard activities: Give a flashcard to Tiger. He mustn’t show anyone the picture on the card. Say ‘Look everyone. Tiger has got a pet. What has he got? Has he got a …?’ Encourage the children to finish your question. Guide the children towards asking ‘Has he got a …?’ or Have you got a …?’ Game: ‘Stand up if it’s true’ is a perfect game for Tiger! Tiger says some factual information but occasionally makes a mistake so that the piece of information is false, like ‘Dogs eat meat.’ (True - children stand up) or ‘Lizards eat meat.’ (False - children sit down). Before you start any game, always revise the content first. Ask Tiger ‘Can you show the children a banana, please?’, ‘Where’s the pear, please?’ Tiger indicates that the children must say the word with him by putting his paw to his ear.

Puppet theatre: Use a box or table. Help children make their own paper finger or hand puppets (stick a ruler or brochette stick to paper plates, use cardboard rolls or roll a slip of paper around a finger, decorate paper bags to make mouth puppets or even just draw a face on their fingers with a felt tip pen) and have them perform the unit’s dialogue, role play or story.

Travelling puppet project: Tiger can become a travelling puppet later in the year. He might travel to the children’s homes or maybe a weekend getaway or the holidays. Ask parents to take photos of Tiger going sightseeing, trying different foods and meeting people on his adventures. They might write a journal or short description about what Tiger has been up to.

Classroom Management: Tiger reacts to and reinforces good and bad behaviour. Train the children to know that when you sit still and quietly, with Tiger on your lap, it means you are waiting for silence. Only do one movement: move your head and his very slowly from side to side. If they are not meeting behaviour expectations, Tiger gets scared, runs off and hides (e.g. if the children are getting too loud, are not listening, are not sitting in their places or are trying to grab the puppet). Tell the children that Tiger will only come out if they are quiet, finish their work, tidy up, etc.

There are so many possibilities in the use of a puppet in the Primary classroom. It is up to the teacher to use his/her imagination to find the best ways to integrate the puppet into daily routines and teaching methods.

Recommended bibliography for further ideas: • Read Carol 2007. 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom. Macmillan. • Read Carol 2014. Teaching Ideas Using a Class Puppet with Very Young Learners. http://www. carolread.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/VYL_puppet.pdf • Roberts, K. 2012. Using Puppets in the ESL Classroom. In ATESOL Newsletter, Vol. 38 No 2, June 2012: https://education.arts.unsw.edu.au/media/EDUCFile/ATESOLNews_Issue2.pdf • Slattery, M. 2008. Teaching with bear: Using puppets in the language classroom with young learners. Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Unwin, D. 2015. Puppets in Primary. In ENGLISH TEACHING professional, Issue 96, January 2015: http://englishforprimaryschool.weebly.com/uploads/8/7/5/1/8751938/puppets_in_primary_etp.pdf

I would like to thank Macmillan Education Argentina for offering me this delightful opportunity to contribute to their series with this short guide. I extend my appreciation to all those involved in the process for their hard work, support and commitment. Sarah Hillyard

• 6 levels • 6–12 years old • 3–5 hours

Key features • Graded approach to teaching grammar and vocabulary • Strong strand of CLIL, cultural awareness and values in each unit • Digital flashcards • Flexible teaching approach with optional integrated digital components www.macmillanyounglearners.com/tigertime

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