Overview
Puppet Pals is a fantastic app for any age level to create a show (a video) for almost any topic. While I have purchased the Director’s Pass upgraded version, the app itself is free. The Director’s Pass has 13 actor sets (each with 5 to 11 characters) with 3 backdrops for each actor set. The Director’s Pass is a one time fee and you will have access to all of the current sets as well as any future ones – a fantastic deal! You can include add in your own backdrops and custom characters (either through taking a photo or saving photos from the internet)
Top Tips
From using this in the classroom we found the following tips useful:
- Plan & Storyboard: Lay out your story in a storyboard or graphic organizer (like Comic Life)
- Dialogue & Stage Direction: Make sure dialogue is written and clear as to who speaks when (also what voice you will use for each actor), what actions the actors need to perform (e.g. move off screen, come closer, walk, appear on screen, turn, appear smaller, etc…), and what actions need to take place between scene changes (e.g. rearrange actors, have an actor move off stage or into the background).
- Group Assignments: If you are working in a group, you will want to assign parts and actors and plan accordingly. Not everyone may have an actor assignment. One person may be responsible for the changing of the backdrop or prop.
- Dress Rehearsal: Once your story is written, parts are assigned, and dialogue is rehearsed, you are ready to perform. I would suggest doing a dry run before recording (like a table read).
Possible Topics for Puppet Pals
- Illustrate a vocabulary word, math problem, or scientific concept
- Recreate a story in a different setting
- Apply today’s government and economic structure to that of the Wild West
- Create a news story (interview a character or a witness)
- Illustrate a poem (include various elements of figurative language: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, idioms, cliches) or practice rhyme scheme & meter
- Write a story using a certain number of prepositional phrases, adverbs, adjectives, etc…
- Create a story to illustrate humor or another emotion or depict sarcasm or irony (verbal, dramatic, situational) or even a paradox
- Create a story to narrate conflict or climax
- Create a story that is a biographical retelling of a historical figure from the era
- Create a talk show to have various characters share their story or debate a topic.
- Persuasive Writing with Puppet Pals App
Other Similar Apps
ToonTastic (Free) Sock Puppets (Free) PuppetPals 1
