Role of Puppet Activities in Interpersonal Relationships within a Group
In this paper, I studied how puppet activities affect interpersonal relationships within a group of children. I observed their reactions, experience and emotional expression and noted down their statements, thus studying interaction within the group following the introduction of different puppet activities.
In the theoretical part, I list basic common characteristics of children’s development, the importance of children’s play and basic levels of play, focusing on sociodramatic play. I present the importance of social behaviour and highlight three dimensions affecting children’s emotional expression and reaction. I also pinpoint basic characteristics that children develop when playing with a puppet and present the field of preschool art. I respond to the question addressing the role of the theatre in preschool and explain the importance of puppets and their types. In the last chapter, I detail drama and puppet activities as well as components that are necessary and reasonable when planning a puppet show.
The empirical part presents 15 activities through which, in the course of three weeks, I introduced the beloved one of the group, Janko the hedgehog, into a group of four- to six-year-old children, and planned and performed, in cooperation with children, two puppet activities and a drama. The results of the project showed positive effects of the use of puppet activities in our group. The group became more compassionate, pensive, tolerant and receptive to new ideas.
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