Delivering Fairy Tales with a Puppet in the First Age Group
This paper comprises a theoretical and a practical part.
In the theoretical part, I summarised findings by different authors to present different types of puppets as well as their importance and use in the first age bracket.
In the practical part, I wanted to present how preschool teachers can integrate puppets in their work with the youngest children in preschool as effectively as possible. I portrayed how a puppet is able to assist preschool teachers in presenting literary texts, i.e. a story, with the aim to reinforce social relationships, friendship, tolerance and orderliness and maintain concentration. Significant focus was devoted to story-telling with a puppet and observing interactions between a preschool teacher and children.
I determined that the puppet makes even the shyest children participate. As soon as they accept the puppet as a member of the group, they cuddle it, touch it, talk to it, etc. They also maintain deeper concentration when participating in an activity, and they later transfer the empathy they feel for the puppet towards others. With the assistance of the puppet, the youngest children learn new words using visual representations, enabling them to associate the words with an object, sketch, etc.
I realised that children in their first age period are not too young to participate in the creation of a set and puppets, as the puppet itself is the one they are fond of and the one that increases their motivation to work. This project, performed in preschool, was successful, as children were able not only listen to a new story through the puppet, but also learn about it in a new and interesting way. They were taught how to develop communication and social skills and found that the puppet can also be their friend.
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