Audience+and+Need

**Who is it For, and Why is it Needed?** Puppets are a way to reach people of all ages, all learning stages and backgrounds. Teachers and parents can be taught to use puppets everyday. Puppets are non-threatening, they have a way of reaching children when the teacher cannot. Teachers need a tool that will help guide the children towards learning. Inviting a teacher or media specialist that uses puppets would be a good way to show the teachers how puppets can be used everyday. Seeing first hand how the puppet interaction can be an asset to the class will encourage teachers to learn more. Meeting with the teachers during the staff meetings and citing sources and showing videos of success stories, would be another way to attract teachers to the many benefits.

Children with all the technology available are used to having a visual source for learning. Puppets are a non-threatening way to instruct children, give them directions and even suggest alternative behavior if needed. Children want to befriend the puppets and will follow what the puppet suggests. Getting the attention of the children is quickly done using a puppet. Puppets also allow for imagination and creativity, which is so important in the growth of a child's mind. Using the puppet to create stories, or reach a child that is challenged are also wonderful uses for the puppet. Children need to have a connection to the classroom and teacher, and a puppet can do that. Schools and libraries are filled with children coming from different living environments, family interactions and varied learning skills, and puppets are excepted by all and even welcomed.

The goal of this wiki is to instruct teachers on the use of puppets, the benefits and provide materials to get them started. Using the information in the wiki will give teachers and opportunity to begin using puppets in the classroom and to try options that will make them feel more comfortable. However, the teacher needs to find what is comfortable for him or her, in the puppet selection and use. Depending on the interaction of the puppet in the classroom there might be more of a need, or less of a need due to the makeup of the classroom. Using puppets should be fun and relaxing, remember the children are looking at the puppet not you. There isn't need for changing your voice or even putting on a complete show. The goal is to use the puppet as a tool to make the learning more fun and visually exciting for the children.