Tuesday 9th November

Good afternoon everyone,

There continues to be a lot of interest in puppet making. Today children in the first floor class finished making their shadow puppets, then used them to act out the stories they created. Children in ground floor class also showed a lot of interest in puppet making.

We use puppets a lot in nursery because they are an excellent way to develop children’s self-confidence.

For many children who aren’t yet fully comfortable opening up with other children or teachers, a puppet can be a great middle-man. They can really explore ideas of role play with them, taking on new personalities, and sharing stories and ideas. Puppets can also help with emotional development.

Children are able to use the puppets to rehearse strategies and ideas that they don’t feel ready to try out in the real world. They’ll follow storylines through and try out different endings to see how they work out. It’s a great way of exploring different types of interactions

Puppets are also brilliant for developing empathy. A puppet can have a wide range of emotions and children can learn how to deal with their own emotions by comforting the puppets. It can also teach them to recognise and support other children who might be having difficulty too. Children also develop their imagination and creativity as they are able to immerse themselves in a completely new world.

They are accessing different characters, different personalities, and challenging themselves to think imaginatively about how other people might react. In essence, puppetry is the perfect blank canvas.

Outdoors children were busy making mobiles with the autumn leaves they collected yesterday and over in red class, children were busy exploring sparkles to make firework pictures.

Have a lovely evening.