Sheep On A Jeep

Materials

Sheep puppets

Pig puppet

Frog puppet

Wagon

Book

How to make sheep puppets

Print out sheep print out from Google. I searched “black line master sheep”. I then took a brown piece of paper and put it behind the sheep printout. In one fell swoop I cut out both the sheep and the brown paper. I stapled the brown paper to the sheep cut out, leaving a small opening on one side. I stuffed the puppet with cotton balls and finished by stapling it completely closed. Tada! A puppet!

If you do not have access to pig and frog puppets you could do this DIY for those characters as well.

Remember, literacy engagement does not need to be completed or take a long time to prep to make the story come to life.

Sensory Story Time 

As I read the story, I used the puppets to act out the story to enhance student engagement. All of my students sit in a chair at circle time so to help them see better I placed the wagon up on a small table that I brought over to the carpet. 

The first time I read the story, I used props to act out the story as I read the book. When I read the book a second and third time I allowed my students to play the characters while I told the story. The students either held their puppets in their supported seating arrangement or came up to the carpet and sat next to the table placing their character in the wagon. 

After reading the story and using the props several times, I put the whole setup in the reading corner. I noticed some of my students would go over to the reading corner and interact with the animals. I allowed the students to explore the materials in a way that they wanted, as long as it did not damage any of the items. I let them repeat the same parts of the story over and over, I let them look at the animals even if they were disregarding the physical book, and I let them look at the cover of the book not touching any of the materials or opening the book. This freedom permits the students to make the literacy experience their own, free of our judgment.

Finally, I read the book one last time without using the props. The students have now heard the story several times with the props and were allowed to interact with the story in both structured and unstructured ways and because of those interactions, I was able to see an increased engagement in the story when I read the book this final time without the need for additional props!

Happy reading!

You can do it and so can your students!