Using Puppets for Primary MFL

One of Lisa Stevens' Top Tips for Primary Language Learning is to use puppets to promote speaking skills and foster motivation.

In this clip, recorded with Camtasia from a Flashmeeting session and uploaded to TeacherTube, Lisa introduces her friendly classroom aids and tells us about the special roles they play in her classroom.

e.g.

buy your puppets from places such as Ikea, Tesco or charity shops

name your puppets in the target language

use them to introduce new language and to take part in role plays

make sure they only speak in the target language

give them their own personalities and voice (as part of a family?)

encourage shy pupils to speak as they assume the character of the puppet and lose inhibitions about using their own voice

use puppets which make a noise (squeak) to grab pupils' attention

give each pupil an individual sock puppet which they can customise and use for pair work or for presentations

create a reward system where pupils add body parts to their sock puppets (eyes, antenna etc) for good examples of speaking and good behaviour

buy masks or create your own with lollipop sticks

have fun and use your imagination with purposeful speaking tasks

use finger puppets while singing songs to be pro-active and indicate the appearance of different characters or phrases

and here is the audio only version too:

Download Lisa_Stevens_on_Puppets.mp3

Comments

[Lisa]

Great post Joe - must try to look at the webcam not the screen next time! Just put a load of pictures of my puppets on my Flickr stream, and written a short blog post too - http://tinyurl.com/6l6kro
Lisa xx