Put On a Puppet Show

Art/Drama

Children will put on a puppet show, using stick puppets of story characters from this theme.

What You Need

• Large, plain cardboard boxes
• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Crayons, colored pencils or markers, water-based paint
• Craft sticks
• Glue or tape

What To Do

1. Remind children that in this theme, the animals always seem to be doing something silly or getting into trouble. Then ask the children to think about the silly stories they just read and list the stories' animal characters (Dragon; Julius the pig; Mrs. Brown's animals—a cow, two pigs, three ducks, and a yak).
2. Divide the class into groups of three. Ask each group to make a puppet show stage, cutting and decorating cardboard boxes to form the stages.
3. Ask each child in a group to choose a character from a different story in the theme, and then to make a stick puppet of that character.
4. Tell the groups to make up a short play featuring their puppet characters. Emphasize that the characters should do silly things or get into some kind of trouble.
5. Have the groups perform their puppet shows for the class.