Using Puppets to Promote Early Childhood Education

 

There is something about puppets that young preschoolers just love, whether it is how they cater to a child’s imagination or how they make a subject easier to understand, children accept their messages without realizing that they are learning.  For young children the bright colors of The Rainbow Puppet Company puppets are great for stimulating attention span and eye tracking skills as well as being a fantastic form of interactive learning and entertainment.

 

Studies have shown that enhancing children’s motivation is not a simple process but the use of puppets to create short focused scenarios has a positive effect on attracting strong interest and attention for children.  The positive outcomes identified include:

 

Enhancing children’s engagement and motivation

Providing a stimulus for focused discussions

Getting children to share their ideas and reveal their misconceptions

Support effective classroom management

 

Additionally,  studies, observations and interviews also showed a number of important changes when puppets were used.  These included the following:

 

-Nearly all of the children were highly engaged and motivated when puppets were used.  They listened more, they became more involved in the lesson and more children engaged in conversation

 

-Many children who did not normally speak in class became more willing to share their ideas.

 

-The majority of the children claimed to understand the subject matter more easily when puppets were integrated into the lesson.

 

The positive impact on the children’s engagement is a valuable outcome of the use of puppets in early childhood education. Engagement is important unto itself; it is also an essential pre-requisite for thinking and talking about ideals and for using higher order thinking skills.

 

The integration of puppetry into our educational programs and curricula substantiates the positive impact that the Rainbow Puppet Company will have not only on the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, but on the full specturm of disciplines associated with early childhood education.

 

 

Additional Subject Matter for Grades K -2

 

Here are some other benchmark standards in the areas of Health Education that are applicable to our target audience.

 

The Rainbow Puppet Company is  currently working on these  topics to address the needs of our most precious citizens—our children

 

-Recognizing warning labels

 

-Wearing a bicycle helmet and using seatbelts

 

-Demonstrating the proper way to sneeze

 

-Recognizing health behaviors

 

-Recognizing childhood injuries

 

-Encouraging others to make positive health choices

 

-Ways to prevent common communicable diseases

 

-Healthy behaviors for family members

 

-Describing the need for water safety

 

-Learning to express needs, wants and feelings

 

-Recognizing that physical activities have safety concerns