Fun with Puppets!

In class on (3/22) we learned about puppets and how to incorporate them into Therapeutic Recreation.  Dr. Navar came in and taught us the basics of puppetry using the kids on the block puppets.  The kids on the block puppets are unique, they aren't just normal puppets.  They are puppets that have different disabilities, and they are used to teach people about specific disabilities.  Sometime they are used with kids because they may feel more comfortable talking to a puppet about a disability rather than talking to human face to face.  We watched a video to learn the basic techniques on how to maneuver the puppet to bring it to life.  The video taught us about lip synchronization, moving the puppet across stage, and posture.  Making the puppet "come to life" is a challenge and not as easy as it looks, its a good workout for your arm!  Its a great teaching tool but takes a lot of time and practice.
We also talked about other uses for puppets and other types of puppets.  Some different uses for puppets are muscle tone, memory, social skills, self expression, medical play, and entertainment.  Different kinds of puppets include hand paintings, paper bag, sock, finger, shadow, and ventrilaquists.  Following this discussion we got into our groups to create our own activity using puppets.  Our population was young teens with eating disorders, we thought to have them making a sock puppet in a way that would represent them, and basically having them create their own performance and writing their own script to describle struggles they delt with.  This was a great class period that introduced us to an activity we all forgot about due to the increases in technology!