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Beginners question..

Buck-Beaver

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My partner is a 4th grade teacher who uses a lot of puppetry in her classroom and she's found John Kennedy's book Puppet Mania extremely useful, as have some of the first grade teachers in her school. Muppets Make Puppets, which JoeyMuppet mentioned, is also great.

I think that the Sock Puppet Pattern might not be appropriate the first grade (probably depends on your students). You can do all the sewing, but I think students get more out of an activity if they can do it themselves. I really like the Puppet Mania and Muppets Make Puppets books because they are sort of "puppet craft" books that show how to produce really fun looking puppets in a simple manner.

For simple marionette ideas, trying finding a copy of "The Most Excellent Book of How To Be A Puppeteer" by Roger Lade. It's filled with lots of great puppet building ideas, including a few marionettes if I'm remembering correctly. A lot of libraries have copies, or you can order a used one through Amazon (it's out of print).
 
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