look who's talking

Today we made paper bag puppets. It was a blast. We spent the afternoon cutting out fun eyes and noses to paste to onto the bags and I was pleasantly surprised by their creativity, as many individuals added skirts, hats, even crowns for those truly regal puppets. Now, the creation of the puppets was not actually the hectic part of the activity. My students sat quietly cutting and pasting at their tables (shockingly!). It was when the finished project arrived that true chaos erupted. They were running about the room talking with their puppets to everyone. I was able to write off most of this confusion due to the fact that many of the puppets were apparently English-speakers (this was thrilling to see). After the initial puppet chaos deceased and students were getting in their seats, Perla, with an enraged look on her face, marched up to me in the front of the room, puppet in (rather on) her hand. She immediately put her puppet up next to her and began to tattle about one of the other students, but using the puppet to talk for her. She was literally moving the mouth of this paper bag puppet to tattle. The tattling in class had now reached a new level. I smiled, very noticeably, at this act and Perla noticed my surprise, but continued. She apparently saw nothing unusual about her actions. I let her continue, handled the problem, and we finished up the afternoon.

Ahh, the power of a puppet.