Puppet exchange
Outline of the activity
This activity made an exciting use of the Internet. The children were involved in designing and assembling a puppet which was posted to a partner school in Australia. The class received a puppet from their Australian friends. The puppets carried backpacks filled with interesting local items.
Skills Covered
The children made extensive use of e-mail to discuss the project with the Australian school. They had been working on collaborative e-mail projects with the Australian school in the period leading up to the puppet exchange. As a follow up the children took their imported puppet out on visits around their local area and some took the puppet home. They then made reports and took digital images, which were e-mailed to Australia. Late in the project the class took advantage of familyshoebox.com (unfortunately, this site has now been closed) to create an interactive website shared by the two classes. Additions could be made to this website by either class.
Rationale
The exercise was part of a series of exchanges between the two schools and reflects a degree of confidence on the part of the staff and the children. The whole project injected considerable motivation and included design technology skills, geographical and historical awareness, speaking and writing skills, maths and ICT.
Results
This is a high motivation exercise. ICT was used to support and add interest to a Design Technology project. A large amount of discussion and thought went into the design of the puppet and its construction. Subsequent consideration was given to the selection of items to be included in the backpack to reflect Welsh culture. Interest was focused on diary writing charting the travels of their imported pet.
