What You Can Do With Puppets

A few months ago me and co-director of Creative Christian Cooperative started planning what classes we wanted to teach for fall semester. She is the drama teacher and would have her hands full with students in an elementary class and high school class. One semester we actually had 37 students sign up for drama. We knew we needed a way to whittle down that number to about 20 in each class. But all the kids love the drama classes. There are a few that weren't interested in being on stage and performing. So in comes a Puppetry Arts class. Two semesters ago I did teach another puppetry class but that was all about making small puppets. This class would be performing. 

My next hurdle would be deciding what puppets and materials to use. Guys, puppets are EXPENSIVE!!! There was a Biblical set I was looking at for $300.00 that included 8-10 puppets plus scripts on cd. That never seemed to materialize because every time I visited the website this particular set was out of stock. Everywhere I looked there was nothing comparable to that one set. I will have 11 kids in this class and knew I needed one puppet for each child to work with. It was starting to get down to the nitty gritty - Co-op starts in less than three weeks. Our choir teacher for the cooperative goes to a small church that is will be leasing out there building because they have outgrown their current church. In the process of moving to a temporary place to worship they needed to clean everything out and low and behold they had puppets and training discs they would give me for a donation to the church. 

So now I have puppets galore at a fraction of the price. Also in the bag was two great Puppet Ministry training discs that have been invaluable to me at this point. I am truly excited about teaching this class and getting the kids excited about working with puppets. God has worked in so many amazing ways through our work with the cooperative. Meeting new families and forming strong bonds is the first and biggest advantage to this co-op. Teaching kids how to use there talents inn the community to glorify God is the obvious one. I hope to continue with puppetry classes and learn more and more to teach the kids.

Puppet Ministry is an awesome way to teach God's love to all walks of life, not just kids. This could go in so many directions, such as: retirement homes, daycare facilities, juvenile detention centers, community gatherings and festivals, and even traveling around to other churches. 

This past weekend has found me watching training dvds, planning the lessons, and picking which scripts to preform. The kids involved in this class will range in age from 8-12 years old. We will start with pre-recorded scripts to perform and as they progress in subsequent semesters we will try our hand at speaking dialogue while moving the puppets. Next semester may also find us with the high school kids taking on a puppetry class and learning to write their own scripts. Looking forward to an excellent semester at Co-op.

I'm linking up with the The Ultimate Homeschool Link Up.