Kids create their own puppet shows narrated with their own voice
Community Review for Puppet Pals HD
My Take
As a teaching tool, this skill allowed students to practice their speaking and communication skills while engaging higher level thinking skills of problem solving (as their stories evolved) and creative thinking. I appreciated the way students owned their own stories and were so proud of their finished products. I do think that they could increase the educational factor of the app by providing students a chance to brainstorm their ideas first instead of jumping right into the creation of the puppet show. In addition I think there should be more instruction that is available for the adults helping the students (i.e. more in-depth how to section) for skills required in the app like getting images, cropping images, etc.
How I Use It
This app is fun for students to use and my students did ask to use it on numerous occasions. Students create puppet shows that they record narration and movement for the puppets. It has a fast set up and is very student friendly; there aren't many instructions to go along with the application though. I used this app as an enrichment/extension activity where my students could develop their own puppet shows using characters and backgrounds that are pre-loaded. There was no pre-writing organization tool for students to use for their story, so it really allowed students to delve into their own creativity and use the puppets to voice their own stories. I did have to go and explain how to move the puppets around to the students and how to record the show, but with a short amount of my effort the students were off and running. Once students had practiced making some short shows, they became more confident of their abilities with the app and created some amusing, creative products.