Pitch In Philanthropic Puppet Project
Young people gain understanding of philanthropists and environmentalists through literature and research. They choose one environmental issue to research and think about its link to philanthropy, the environment, and active citizenship. Research culminates in advocacy in the presentation of a poster or puppet play.
Young people explore what it means to be an environmentalist. They work in small groups to research the facts and possible solultions related to an environmental issue. The ultimate goal of the unit is to empower young people to share their knowledge (talent) and make others aware of environmental issues for the common good.
In this lesson, young people create story scripts from the research and facts collected in Lesson One: Digging Up the Facts. The scripts include setting, one character per child, problem, solution, and a beginning, middle and end. Young people edit and revise their scripts.
Young people make puppets out of recycled materials. They use their creativity to come up with a movable puppet that represents a character in their puppet play.
Young people perform their puppet plays in order to teach others about environmental issues. They reflect on this project by writing an answer to some essential questions of the unit: What does it mean to be a philanthropist? What does it mean to be an environmentalist?