PuppetMaster Lesson Plans / The Three Little Pigs
Grade:
Kindergarten – Grade 3
Lesson Objectives/ Instructional Outcomes:
- Students will be able to explore a narrative text for the main idea/message
- Students will be able to evaluate how supporting characters may have differing experiences from the narrator
- Students will be able to apply knowledge of character attributes to develop a puppet
- Students will be able to communicate the main idea or central idea of a text
- Students will be able to publish a multimedia project that presents their knowledge of the narrative
Common Core Standards:
ISTE Standards:
Relationship to Unit Structure:
Sometimes stories can seem so one-sided! This lesson invites students to be creative as they think about how characters may have experienced the events in the story differently, and how that may affect their point of view. Students
Instructional Materials/ Resources:
- The Three Little Pigs by Flora Annie Steel
- The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
- (Teacher can select other stories available in their classroom)
- Materials for Pig and Wolf Crafts (See Tutorials & Printables section of this page)
- Materials for Background with Grapes Craft (See Tutorials & Printables section of this page)
- PuppetMaster App
Anticipated Student Challenges:
- Students may struggle with the craft on their own, and may prefer to create their own puppets with crayons or markers
- Stories may be a little too elevated in their original form, so teachers are encouraged to find simplified versions of these narratives
Day 1
Anticipatory Set:
- Read: The Three Little Pigs
- Discussion:
- Have you ever heard somebody say something about you that wasn’t true?
- Sometimes we only get one side of the story. How would you feel if you were the big bad wolf and this was the story everyone thought about you?
- Vote: Who would want to share their version of the story?
Instruction & Lesson Activities:
(See Tutorials & Printables section of this page for details)
- Read: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
- Group Activity: Allow students to select a range of stories and work together in groups to evaluate the various points of view in the story.
- Alternative Class Activity: Teacher assigns a text with a wide-range of characters and assigns groups of students to cover each character.
- Students characterize their character, i.e. Is the wolf mean or nice? Is this pig the hero, or is the wolf?
- Puppet Party: Show the kids how to make their own crafty puppets, and help them make them. Students may even use visual details to characterize their puppets, e.g. mean or nice facial expressions.
- Background Creation: Students a background for their scene, individually or in groups.
Closure:
Students report their character to their teachers
Homework:
None
Day 2 / Day 3
Anticipatory Set:
Teacher reviews App with students, showing an example of creating a puppet, background, and animation.
Instruction & Lesson Activities:
(See Tutorials & Printables section of this page for details)
Workshop:
- Puppet building in app
- Background building in app
- Script writing for PuppetMaster videos, based on the point of view of the puppet
- Creating PuppetMaster videos in app and exporting to photo library
Closure:
Theater: Students share their videos with their class or in small groups
Homework:
None
Differentiation Strategies:
- This is a student-centered lesson that allows them to communicate their understanding
- Students are invited to create their own puppet using found materials, drawings, or other craft products. Templates are available if necessary.
- Teachers can group students or allow students to work individually
- Teachers can select multi-perspective texts if they want this to be a whole-class activity
Assessment:
- Puppet
- Background
- PuppetMaster Video
Pig Puppet
Materials:
- Pink tissue paper
- White paper
- Black marker
- White stickers for mouth (reinforcement stickers or labels)
- Tape
- Glue
- Scissors
Instructions:
See video.
Notes:
- Our pigs are all pink. You could also use different colors for the body to give the impression that the pig is wearing clothes.
- Dark colored tape could be wrapped around hands and feet, for hooves, or gloves and shoes.
- Additional bits of paper or markers could be used to give more facial detail that characterizes the puppet – eyebrows, for instance, can be angled to look mean or gently arched to look friendly.
- This basic technique of sculpting paper could be used for any number of characters, not just pigs.
Wolf Puppet
Please see Tutorials & Printables section of our Fox and the Grapes lesson plan. A wolf can be done similarly, but with medium-dark grey paper instead of red/orange paper, and without the white at the end of the tail. The tail can also be made much smaller and thinner, or even left out altogether, as it is not as prominent a feature of a wolf as it is of a fox.
Background
Time permitting, children can create a background (drawing, painting or collage). Alternatively, they can use photos that fit the story. Teacher may download photos or illustrations in advance from a royalty free website such as pexels.com.
Creating the PuppetMaster Animation
See video for complete process of creating the puppet, background, and animation:
Tips:
- You may find it useful to photograph the kids’ pigs, wolves, and backgrounds with the device camera before even entering the PuppetMaster app. That way they are saved in your Photo Library for reusing or sharing.
- Try placing the artwork on the floor or low table, especially if still wet, so students can photograph from the top down and see the screen.
- Marking the body parts in the app doesn’t have to be perfect, you can always go back in and edit this later.
- Don’t forget to place the puppet joints in the right spot at the last step. The Auto-fit button give a good start but usually some adjustments are necessary, and then of course hit the Save button.
- If animating with motion capture (moving your body in front of the camera), make sure only one student is in the shot, and try for a plain background. Keep hair out of face, tucked behind ears. Student should speak loudly so device will pick it up.
- If animating with screen touch, don’t forget multi-touch – you can drag the whole puppet around with one finger, use another finger to move a hand, another finger to move the head, etc. So get in there with both hands and multiple fingers.
- Don’t forget to hit Export and save the animation, and let it finish. The saved video will be in your Photo library. You can upload it to Google Drive or anywhere else. You can even take the video into other apps, if you want to edit together several “takes” of the animation, or do any other types of video editing to it.
See video for animation process using motion capture and screen touch methods:
Here’s a simple example. You may request varying levels of detail from your students, depending on grade level.