Fine Arts: Theater

K-4 Standard 2: Acting by assuming roles and interacting in improvisations

• Students imagine and clearly describe characters, their relationships and their environments.
• Students use variations of locomotor and nonlocomotor movement and vocal pitch, tempo and tone for different characters.

Fine Arts: Visual Arts

K-4 Standard 1: Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques and Processes

• Students use different media, techniques and processes to communicate ideas, experiences and stories.

K-4 Standard 3: Choosing and Evaluating a Range of Subject Matter, Symbols and Ideas

• Students select and use subject matter, symbols and ideas to communicate meaning.

Source: National Standards for Arts Education

Physical Education: Movement Forms

K-12 Standard 1: Develop physically educated individuals who have the knowledge, skills and confidence to enjoy a lifetime of healthful physical activity.

• A physically educated student demonstrates competency in many movement forms and proficiency in a few movement forms.
  

Reprinted from Moving into the Future, National Standards for Physical Education, 2nd Edition, with permission from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), 1900 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-1599.

Source:National Standards for Physical Education

Consider reading The Gingerbread Man by Eric Kimmel or any familiar gingerbread man story to introduce this lacing puppet activity to the class. Support youngsters with fun lacing projects like this one to develop fine motor skills. Use lace, ribbon or yarn for lacing projects to expose students to multiple textures and patterns. Students can retell gingerbread man stories using their lacing puppet and even create their own endings.

Figure A

Supplies Used: Construction Paper, Buttons, Chalk, Colored Pens, Glue, Plastic Needle, Ribbon, Shoelaces, White Yarn

The teacher will die-cut the materials for student use prior to the lesson.

1. Die-cut two brown XL Lacing Puppets for each hand puppet created.
2. Using shoe laces, ribbon or white yarn threaded onto a plastic needle, lace around the gingerbread man Puppet, securing the two die-cuts together (Figure A).
3. Embellish completed Puppets with colored pens, chalk, ribbons, buttons or Tiny Hearts die-cuts (see Main Photo).