Reading Comprehension Lesson Plans - Try This Nifty Idea When Teaching Comprehension

Make Simple Stick Puppets 

Ask your students to do the following. 

- Draw the main characters from the story you are exploring onto thick paper. 

- To control the size, fold the A4 paper into 8 and draw each character in one of the rectangles. 

 - Also draw any other important elements of the story. If you are doing "The Three Little Pigs", you will need the three houses as well. If you are doing "Cinderella", you will need the pumpkin coach as well. 

- Color your puppets, cut them out and glue them onto sticks. 

- Store the puppets in an envelope or piece of A4 paper folded in half and stapled at the sides. - Decorate the envelope and write the title of the story and the name of the characters on it. Once the puppets are made they can be used in other activities.

Students can use the puppets to retell the story.

A student can retell the story on their own using the puppets as props (great for assessment) or each student can play a character and the group can retell the story. The group version works best if there is an adult leading the story. As the adult reads or retells the story the appropriate student uses the puppet to act out what is happening. Ask the student controlling the puppet to get their puppet to say something at the same time,"Oh no, it's the Big, Bad Wolf again!"

Students can use the puppets to tell a different story with the same characters.

Students can work individually or in pairs to create another story with the puppet characters. Get the students to form small groups of four to six and retell their new stories to each other. If there is time, the students can then write and illustrate their new stories.

Students can use the puppets to create scenes from the story.

If you have younger students (and access to a sand pit) let them use the puppets and sand to create a scene from story. If you can, take photos and display them in the class. The students can then write or type a sentence that describes what is happening in their picture and this can be placed underneath. Once the students have finished their sand scene creation let them play freely with the puppets for awhile. If you don't have a sand pit, the puppets will also stand up in the grass. Grassland scenes can be created from leaves, flowers and sticks. If that is not possible, ask the students to create a back drop to one of the scenes in the story using an A3 piece of art paper.

Students can use the puppets to create a book.

If you have time and your students have the ability, small groups could create all the key scenes from the story, photograph them, and use a computer to add text to the photos. Their work can be shown to the class using power point or printed out to create a simple book.