20-Minute Puppet Show!

On the last day before the October holidays, just when I suspected the children’s energy level was going to be too high for them to be able to concentrate even on their responsibilities, I rallied them together at the end of the day for a 20-minute puppet show! Yes, this entire process took us 20 minutes.

I began by gathering the children in a circle and showing them some puppets I hastily threw together using cut paper and clothespins. This took about 5 minutes.

Ghost! Vampire! Mad Scientist! Skeleton! Jack-O-Lantern! EEEEEeeek!

Thankfully, they liked the puppets. I then divided the children into two groups: One group’s task was to come up with the story and act it out with the puppets.

The writers deliberating.

I gave the second group, “the orchestra”, the task of composing the music for the puppet show. The children chose all the instruments and came up with what music accompanied which character. Because we only had 20 minutes, I didn’t expect them to write out thier ideas. Two of the children decided to improvise at the piano for the duration of the puppet show. (Since it was a celebration of Halloween, they decided to only use the black keys. Oooooo!)

The orchestra getting their parts together.

To write the play and compose the music, I gave the children 10 minutes.

After they were all done and knew what they were going to do, we tipped over a table and performed the show. It was adorable.

The children performing the puppet show. (The puppet on the left is a disembodied hand!)

A still from a video of the show. the orchestra is awaiting their cues. The pianists, however, are watching and improvising.

Of course, I could have had the children make the puppets and design the set, but we only had 20 minutes. There is always room for a puppet show that pulls all the stops. You could take the whole morning, for example, to put on a spectacular puppet show! But the children loved their little 20-minute performance.

So there you have it. You, too, can throw together a 20-minute puppet show with your class. Give the children a few creative limits, let them explore, and you’ll be delighted with the result.

Many more activities like this are available, if you’ll pardon the shameless plug, in the the forthcoming book Making Music in Montessori, which will be out on December 15th, but is available for preorder now on Amazon! Click here to get your copy:

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Music-Montessori-Everything-Classrooms-dp-1475844697/dp/1475844697/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1603497375

More later!