The Sophisticated Sock: Project Based Learning Through Puppetry delivers a career of in-school experience to teachers, resident artists, and anyone wishing to engage children grades K - five in enthusiastic learning across the curriculum. Karen Konnerth is a world traveling puppeteer as well as arts integration specialist, with countless hours logged developing, implementing, and refining these projects in a wide variety of schools and educational settings. Karen has provided workshops for teachers at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as for the U.S. Embassy English Language Specialist program in Central America, Asia, and the Middle East. The book offers time-efficient, step-by-step projects to produce memorable, in-depth, core standards-based, collaborative learning. The magically engaging art form of puppetry is the Pied Piper requiring students to grasp, use, and therefore, remember the curriculum core of each lesson in order to bring the art form to life. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) learning takes place as students manipulate and experiment with materials for a specific purpose and every project necessitates higher order thinking skills. Explicit diagrams and suggestions encourage puppet making using very basic, quick, and low-cost designs to facilitate immediate use of the art form in formal or informal performance. Specific assessment tools are included for each project. And best of all, students are motivated and enthusiastic as they absorb the 21st Century skills of critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication.

Foreword by Jan Wolfe

I. Introduction

Why This Book Was Written

How To Use This Book

You CAN Do This: Sample Project Ideas

What Is a Puppet?

What Is Puppet Theater?

Why Puppets in School Classrooms?

A Note About Classroom Management

A Note About Creativity

II. Activities and Projects

Chapter Contents Details

Introduction to Puppetry Themes

Activity One: From Skip to Stomp (Grades: K – 5)

Driving Question: How do we use our bodies to communicate emotions?

Activity Two: From Smooth to Pointy (Grades: K – 5)

Driving Question: How can shape and color build a character?

Activity Three: From Squeak to Roar (Grades: K – 5)

Driving Question: How much information can be communicated by the voice?

Language Arts Themes

Project Four: From Page to Puppets (Grades K – 2, 3 – 5)

Driving Question: How can we use puppets to share the events of a story?

Project Five: Perk Up the Plot! (Grades 3 – 5)

Driving Question: How can we write a story with dynamic structure?

Project Six: From Wolf to Shark (Grades 3 – 5)

Driving Question: How do writers give an old story a fresh start?

Project Seven: Puppets and Poetry (Grades K – 5)

Driving Question: How can words become pictures?

Project Series Eight: Keys to Reading (Grades K – 3)

Driving Question: What is our brain actually doing when we read?

Social Studies and History Themes

Project Series Nine: Puppet City (Grades 1 – 3)

Driving Question: How does a community form and function?

Project Ten: Us and Them (Grades 3 – 5)

Driving Question: How is point of view connected to understanding history?

Project Eleven: Culture and Myth (Grades 3 – 5)

Driving Question: What is the connection between myths and culture?

Science Themes

Project Twelve: Cycles of Change (Grades K – 2)

Driving Question: What do natural life cycles have in common?

Project Thirteen: Happy Habitat (Grades 2 – 5)

Driving Question: How do wild animals find what they need to survive?

Art Themes

Project Fourteen: Story in Art (Grades K – 2 and 3 – 5)

Driving Question: How can you see a painting as part of a story?

Conflict Resolution Theme

Project Fifteen: The Choice is Yours (Grades 3 – 5)

Driving Question: What are our choices in how we resolve a conflict?

III. Puppet Making Techniques

Chapter Contents Details

Finger Puppets

Hand Puppets

Masks

Miming Puppets

Parade Puppets

Rod Puppets

Shadow Puppets

Table Top Puppets

Toy Theater

IV. Supplements & Resources

Project Check List: Hand and Rod Puppets

Project Check List: Miming Puppets

Project Check List: Shadow Puppets

Project Check List: Toy Theater

Teamwork & Focus Rubric

Constructive Critique Process

Sound Effects Orchestra

Resources