SNOWFLAKE PEOPLE PUPPETS RECITE POEMS!

Jane Yolen's book, "Snow, Snow: Winter Poems for Children", is rich with short, easy to recite poems about the snow. Beautiful color photographs capture the different moods of snow presented in different locations. This entire book is a work of art, as the layouts vary to add variety to the mostly white images and black text and the poems so perfectly express the picture they are pared with.

Make snowflake people puppets to recite one of Ms.Yolen’s short winter poems. Or after reading the book of winter poems, go out and take snow pictures of your own. Create your own short poem and have your snow puppet recite it to the class.

Make your puppet by first making both large and small snow flakes. Cut out and color a simple boy template with legs wide apart and a girl template wearing a skirt. Use the large snowflakes for the legs and skirt, and use the small snowflakes as hands and hair. Put the puppet on a twig or stick and you’re ready for a puppet poem recital.


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Have Fun with Puppets!

Use your puppet station to teach reading, creative writing, math, geography, art, science and even proper behavior and social skills. Incorporate great books and creative activities to keep learning fun!

1.Little Red Hen

a. BEHAVIOR- Share stories about helping others- what are situations where you could help someone-how does it make you feel?

b. SCIENCE- (Book Idea- “Bread Comes to Life: A Garden of Wheat and a Loaf to Eat” by George Levenson) What do you need to grow wheat- how does it turn into bread? Grind up some wheat into flour. Draw a chart of the sequence from the planting of the seed to the baking of the bread. Make bread.

2. Baby Hippo

a. GEOGRAPHY/SCIENCE-Where is Africa- what kind of habitat does a hippo live in? How long do they live? What do hippos eat? (Book Idea- “One Hippo Hops” by Jane Yolen and “Fun with African Stencils” by Sue Brooks)

b. ART- Make a class book of African animals with stencils.

c. CREATIVE WRITNG/STORYTELLING- The baby hippo is coming to your house for the weekend. What will you do with her/him- what games will you teach her -what will you feed her- how does she make you laugh?

3. Pizza Pie

a. SCIENCE- You open up a pizzeria for a specific animal, keeping in mind, their behavior and habitats. Draw the pizzeria and the menu. What would an emperor penguin want on its pizza and what would the restaurant be made of? (Book Idea-“Tacky the Penguin” by Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger) Use this read along book with its CD at your listening center before you have puppet time.

b. MATH-With a large poster board circle (the pizza) cut it in half - 2 semicircles, cut those in half 9great introduction to fractions)

4. Aquarium

a. Science -Fish- How do they breath? Why are they covered with scales? (Book Idea- “What is it Like to be a Fish?” By Wendy Pfeffer and “My Visit to the Aquarium” by Aliki)

b. creative writing/drawing- if you were a fish what part of the ocean would you swim in- would there be a shipwreck- would you have a hide-away in seaweed or a coral reef- what other sea creatures would you see- starfish -jellyfish- what would you dream of at night? (illustrate)

5. Norman

a. CREATIVE WRITING/DRAWING- Norman is expanding his mind, learning new things, and working on his circus act. Do you have a pet that you can imagine having a different life? Perhaps a cat, which could purr so beautifully she becomes an opera singer. Invent an animal if you don't have one, like a dog that loves to cook or a fish that does ballet. How about an iguana that stars in a SCI-Fi movie? Describe this creature’s daily activity from dawn to dusk.

b. MATH shapes can be found all over the circus. (Book Idea-“Circus Shapes” by Stuart Murphy and Edward Miller)

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