Hats & Bats Puppets

1. Students share their favorite sport with the class and design their own team of athletic puppets! Try either one of these ways to create puppets.
2. To make glove puppet: Form Crayola Model Magic into a puppet head-sized ball. Stick your ring and middle fingers into the bottom of the head so it stays on your hand. Shape a face. Poke in some parts and add modeling compound for eyes, nose, and mouth. Form ears and forehead. Air-dry the puppet head.
3. If you want a shiny puppet, seal it with a glue mixture. Here’s how: Cover the art area with recycled newspaper. Mix equal amounts of Crayola School Glue and water in a foam produce tray. With a foam brush, cover the dry Model Magic. Air-dry the coating.
4. Using Crayola Fabric Markers, decorate the front and back of a recycled glove. Make it look like a player’s uniform. Slip the head on your gloved fingers. You’re ready to put on a show.
5. To make rod puppet: Follow Step 2 to form a puppet head. Poke a small wooden dowel or Crayola colored pencil into the head (like a neck). With more Model Magic, make two athletes’ hands large enough to hold sports equipment. Poke a dowel in each hand. Air-dry the head and hands.
6. If you want a shiny puppet, follow step 3.
7. Cut fabric for the player’s jersey with Crayola Scissors. Poke a small hole for the neck to fit through. The material will hang like a poncho, with arms on sticks coming out of the sides.
8. With Fabric Markers, design the sports jersey with numbers, name, and designs. Slip dowel through fabric. Wrap a rubber band around the fabric inside the neck to hold the uniform in place.
9. Work your rod puppet with two hands, one holding the head stick and the other working both hand sticks. It takes some practice!
10. Use Model Magic to form sports equipment for your players, such as helmets and balls. Make their sizes match the puppets. Air-dry the sports equipment before re-enacting the big game!

LA: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

LA: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

SS: Identify roles as learned behavior patterns in groups situations such as student, family member, peer play group member, or club member.

SS: Give examples of and explain groups and institutional influences such as religious beliefs, laws, and peer pressure, on people, events, and elements of culture.

VA: Intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of experiences and ideas.

VA: Select and use the qualities of structures and functions of art to improve communication of ideas.

VA: Use subjects, themes, and symbols that demonstrate knowledge of contexts, values, and aesthetics that communicate intended meaning in artworks.

Possible classroom resources include: Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888 by Ernest L. Thayer; Casey at the Bat (Visions in Poetry) by Ernest L. Thayer; A Writing Kind of Day: Poems for Young Poets by Ralph Fletcher

Working in small groups, students practice "Casey at the Bat" for presentation to classmates. Encourage students to dress as a ball player and bring in any appropriate props available. Use large pieces of recycled cardboard to sketch and paint a backdrop for presentations.

Students research an important moment in sports history, but as Jackie Robinson's Brooklyn game or Jesse Owens' Olympic victory. Write a poem about the sports moment. Be prepared to present it to classmates. If time permits, use large pieces of recycled cardboard to sketch and paint a backdrop for presentations.