Curated OER
The Ancient Art of Shadow Puppet Plays
Shadow puppetry has an ancient past, it is also a great way to build oral expression and reading fluency. Young thespians research folk tales, compare and contrast reality and fantasy, then create and perform a shadow puppet play based...
Curated OER
Shadows & Light, Science & Puppetry
Lights, shadows, action, and inquiry await your artistic scientists. They explore the way light travels, absorbs, reflects, and transmits through shadow play. They create folktale-inspired shadow puppets, explore the science of light,...
Curated OER
The Science of Shadow Puppets
Students explore the art of shadow puppetry. In this performing arts lesson, students study the functions of lighting in the puppet theater as they examine the transmission, absorption, and reflection of light. As a culminating activity,...
Curated OER
Chinese Shadow Puppets
Students explore Chinese culture by performing a shadow puppet play. They create the puppets, develop a script, and rehearse and perform a play which illustrates an understanding of Chinese stories and traditions.
Curated OER
Shadow Puppets
Students examine the role of shadow puppets. They create their own puppet and put on a play.
Curated OER
PUPPETRY
Students explore world cultures through their puppetry. Your students explore puppets that are used in various cultures and create their own. The Internet experiences in this instructional activity are designed to be teacher-directed...
Curated OER
Shadow Puppets
Students experiment with the effects that various light and puppet positions have on shadows they make with their hands and arms. They work in pairs to trace their shadows and create puppets with the silhouettes. Afterward, they make...
Curated OER
Shadow Puppetry in South India
Students read a variety of literature from India, including folktales and fables. They then select a scene or story to script, work together to design and craft shadow puppets of characters and scenery, narrate a story, manipulate the...
Curated OER
Chinese Shadow Puppet Play
Students experience through role-play the art of shadow puppetry and appreciate the role of oral traditions in Chinese history. They research the origins and history of puppetry as a part of a unit on China. They discover what Chinese...
Curated OER
Chinese Shadow Puppets
Students explore the art of Chinese shadow puppetry. They create puppets, develop and rehearse scripts and perform a show in front of the class.
Curated OER
The World of Puppets
Students visit given web-sites to find out what puppets look like in different countries and then make a puppet and write a play for it.
Curated OER
Javanese Wayang Kulit Lesson Plan
Fourth graders study the history and culture associated with Javanese Shadow Puppets and the perspective that is used during performances. They design original shadow puppets and give a shadow puppet performance using their creations.
American Museum of Natural History
Make Your Own Mythic Mask or Puppet
No need to wait until Halloween to create a mask. Young anthropologists get involved in the centuries-old tradition of mask and puppet making with the help of an engaging resource that shows them how to craft their own masks or puppets.
Curated OER
Chinese Mythology
Seventh graders examine creation myths of China, discuss how myths reflect Chinese culture, differentiate between Chinese and Greek creation myths, and explore place of myths in Chinese culture as compared to their place in other...
Johnson County Community College
Treasured Stories by Eric Carle
Explore the works of Eric Carle with a set of four lessons focused around the stories, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Young readers develop a storyboard,...
Curated OER
Legends in Their Own Times
Students learn folk tales from many different cultures and retell them using the medium of their choice. They write about the cultural indications found in these tales.
Other
Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture: Shadow Play
Information and illustrations about the history of shadow puppertry as a theatrical art.
Florida State University
Florida State University: Molecular Expressions: Shadowbox Theatre
Have you ever thought about your shadow? One way to learn about them is to make your own shadow box theater--once a very popular form of entertainment in Europe during the 1800s and early 1900s.
Other
The Puppetry Home Page
The Puppetry Home Page provides lots of resources for puppeteers including news and puppetry organizations.
Mocomi & Anibrain Digital Technologies
Mocomi: History of Puppets
Read about the history of puppetry and about the many interesting types of puppets around the world.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Activity 1: Seeing Light and Color
This activity focuses on using a box and a ball to experiment with light, shadows, and color. The goals are: Practice looking at light and shadow; Analyze how lighting influences the shape (soft/hard), color (hue) and value...
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Kara Walker
Biographical information on Kara walker, an American installation artist who used intricate cut-paper silhouettes, together with collage, drawing, painting, performance, film, video, shadow puppetry, light projection, and animation, to...
NPR: National Public Radio
Npr: A Life Inside Big Bird
Complete with audio and video links, this NPR web page tells the story of the puppeteer who is the voice and movement of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, Caroll Spinney. Includes excerpts from Spinney's autobiography. This site has lots of...
Other
Leather Puppets of India
Use this site to learn about the fascinating world of Gypsy-made leather puppets. This nomadic tribe is always on the move carrying their puppets and musical instruments seeking permission from village leaders to perform for monetary...