Wise Life Choices Puppet Show

Goal: Teachers and students write short skits about making smart life choices and the consequences of making bad life choices.

Time: 5 classroom periods

Learning Objectives: Students think critically and learn about the importance of making wise life choices by writing short skits. Students express their creativity by crafting puppets and learn the value of teamwork when performing their skits together for the class.

Potential for Critical Assessment: Teacher may evaluate students’ participation.

Activity

Period 1: Write several short skits with your students about saying yes to smart life choices and saying no to bad choices. There should be at least one or potentially several from each category (depending on class size) showing positive and negative endings.

Sample Positive Themes: Being a good friend, being a good citizen, being a good student, being a student leader, volunteering, learning to play an instrument, learning a foreign language, getting involved in sports, and more.

Sample Negative Themes: Vaping, smoking, taking medications from home without permission, not taking school seriously, skipping school, stealing, fighting, bullying, experimenting with marijuana, participating in pill parties, and more.

Period 2: Divide students into several small groups and assign a skit to each.

Each group will perform their skit using puppets they make out of toilet paper tubes, craft paper, and other art materials.

Period 3: Coach and support your students as they practice their skits.

Period 4: Students perform their skits. At the end of the class period talk with your students and ask them to discuss their feelings and what they learned. For homework, ask students to write a short narrative about what they think are the most important lessons they learned and what they liked most about the project.

Period 5: Students share their thoughts with the class. Remind them about the positive and negative lessons and how important it is to make wise choices.

Standards of Learning:

Common Core

3rd Grade

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.A
Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.B
Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.C
Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.D
Provide a sense of closure.

4th Grade

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3.A
Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3.B
Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3.C
Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3.D
Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3.E
Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.

5th Grade

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.A
Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.B
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.C
Use a variety of transitional words, phrases, and clauses to manage the sequence of events.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.D
Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.E
Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.