Workshops and Residencies

Children handcraft a puppet and create original stories. Professional development puppetry workshops encourage educators to explore the art form. Making a puppet is not only an art project. Students make their puppets come alive with a voice and purposeful movement.

Neon Hand Puppet Workshop

Students will hand craft their own rod-style 3D hand puppet from fluorescent materials. Master puppeteer, Jean Kuecher, will inspire the young puppeteers to manipulate and speak for their puppets. Groups of 3 or 4 students will create their own original puppet show from behind the black light puppet stage. The students will be the audience and enjoy performing the glowing puppet shows for each other during the last 20 minutes. Learn to identify the main character, goal, problem and solution.

All supplies will be provided by the workshop presenter. Teachers are required to help with the workshop. Students will take home their own original puppet creation.

Ages - 5 to 13

Size - up to 40 students with adult helpers

Length - 1.5 - 2 hours

Jean's puppetry worked wonders! The students were confident with their own imagination. Jean's magic was as enchanting as a fairy tale! Thank you Jean for your hard work and your love and respect for the children.

Janice Hill, 2nd grade teacher, Pine Shadows Elementary School, Houston

"I have seen some of my most quiet students begin to participate more comfortably in front of their peers and become more verbally active and involved in helping to make group decisions. I would highly recommend this experience to all educators because it provides students with a memorable experience no matter what subject area or grade level they teach."

Patricia Pallavicini, Pine Shadows Elementary

Neon Paper Fish Puppetry Workshop

"I love playing with the puppets I make with Jean at her workshop."

Hannah Tello, age 8

Students will create Fluorescent paper hand puppets and perform behind a Black light puppet stage. Master puppeteer, Jean Kuecher, will inspire the young puppeteers to manipulate and speak for their puppets. Groups of 3 or 4 students will create their own original puppet show from behind the black light puppet stage. Learn to identify the main character, goal, problem and solution.

All supplies will be provided by the workshop presenter. Teachers are required to help with the workshop. Students will take home their own original puppet creation.

Ages - 2 to 13

Size - up to 60 students with adult helpers

Length - 1 - 1.5 hours

You capture the children's imagination and dreams! The kids and I look forward to your visits and appreciate your creativity, love and individual attention.

John Adolph, 2nd grade teacher, Pine Shadows Elementary School, Houston

Educator Workshops

Puppets Support Literacy Workshop - Learning is Alive!

Teachers! Get motivated, gain confidence, and learn techniques for using puppets to help support literacy in your classroom. Puppets are powerful teaching and learning tools! You can use puppets to nurture creative thinking, stretch the imagination, strengthen a love of language and motivate even the most reluctant reader. Your students will heighten their critical thinking and hone their listening, fluency, and communication skills! Learn to identify the main character, goal, problem and solution. Learn to incorporate art and play into literature by using puppets for story mapping, collaboration, and comprehension.

Workshop Objectives:

to demonstrate how using puppetry is a valuable learning and teaching tool in the classroom to accomplish curriculum goals.
to provide ideas and techniques for using puppets to teach specific literacy concepts and skills in a fun and authentic way.
to model using puppets to create story maps and deepen character development to support literacy.
to provide ideas for supplies and resources to create puppet models to use in the classroom.
to show how puppetry can be used as a differentiation tool to support learners at all developmental levels

I was so impressed with your presentation. Thanks heavens I decided to come! It was the richest hour of the day and I learned so much. I was fascinated listening to you. You have given me some excellent tools. I have so many new ideas and inspirations, I can hardly wait to integrate them all.

Ellen Scott, Children’s Librarian, Austin TX

Puppetry Workshop: Techniques to Enchant Children

Delightful demonstrations of simple-to-make puppets to use in familiar stories and songs will encourage participants to share puppetry with children. Many puppet ideas will be presented to enchant children: hand, rod, glove and shadow puppets and marionettes. Enjoyable and fun! Become enchanted!

Each story or song will be presented as it would be to the children, followed by an explanation of how to make and manipulate the puppets. Learn to identify the main character, goal, problem and solution.

Each of your presentations was so well-received, and there were many specific mentions of your sessions among the conference feedback forms. You inspired our audience of teachers with concrete, "do it tomorrow" ideas - exactly the kind of thing they want when they go to a conference!

Linda Amin, TARA Speaker Coordinator

Make & Take Workshop: Neon Paper Puppetry

Educators will create fluorescent paper hand puppets and perform behind a black light puppet stage. Master puppeteer, Jean Kuecher, will inspire the teacher/ puppeteers to manipulate and speak for their puppets. Groups of 3 or 4 persons will create their own original puppet show from behind a hand puppet stage. Learn to identify the main character, goal, problem and solution.

All supplies will be provided. Educators will take their own original puppet creations back to their classrooms. Be a Puppeteer the next day for your students!

"Jean's puppetry skills are fabulous. I just love the way she takes the time to answer questions about her craft after her performances."

Lynnette Olivarez Tello
Early Childhood Consultant

Make & Take Workshop: Itsy Bitsy Spider Puppet Show

Take home a puppet show! Make a puppet show in a cup of The Itsy Bitsy Spider, complete with the spider, sunshine and rain cloud puppets. And learn how to use them! Learn to identify the main character, goal, problem and solution.

All supplies will be provided. Educators will take their own original puppet creations back to their classrooms. Be a Puppeteer the next day for your students!