Hand Puppets
Hand Puppetry is a great project for 1st grade and up! Even high school students get really into the process. This project has several great aspects. The creation of the head has just about infinite possibility for variations, and the puppets often reflect each student’s personality in quirky ways. There is less need for storage than with masks or giant puppets. In a 2-week residency, I teach students methods for operating their puppet, character development, funny voices, sound-effects, and students learn teamwork and group-collaboration skills as they develop their own puppet show with others. Usually it takes a full week (5 days, 1-hour lessons) to complete a puppet.