Little Fir Tree - Puppet Show

About the story

This is a story of a Little Fir Tree that was granted four wishes by a magician for its kindness. The first wish of the tree is to get green leaves like its other friends. The wish is fulfilled. However, a goat comes and eats up all the green leaves. The tree makes a second wish - it asks for golden leaves. This time a man steals the leaves. The tree is sad and makes a third wish - it asks for glass leaves. But they break because of the heavy wind. Finally, the tree realized its mistake and went back to its natural form – a little fir tree.

Topic of reflection

Using puppets to tell a story is highly entertaining as well as educational in many ways. I have used puppets in my class to tell the story of The Little Fir Tree

Puppet show

After teaching the lesson, the story was narrated as a puppet show. Puppets were made out of waste cloths, papers, charts, card boards, socks, sticks, etc. Students were also involved in the show along with their teachers. They provided background sounds like bird calls, rain, etc. Some of them were also handling the puppets while the teachers were narrating the story in English.

It started with “once upon a time, there was a little fir tree...”. Background sounds were added by the children who were blowing a whistle that sounded like birds’ sound.

“Then a magician entered, who was accompanied by rain”. The sound of rain was used for that scene. “He sat under the tree. The fir tree saved him from getting wet in rain. So, he granted four wishes to the tree for being kind.........so on and so forth”.       

It was exciting for both students and teachers to watch and learn something through puppetry. It brought the story to life. Students were enthralled by the audio-visual addition to an exciting tale.

Discussion

We then had a discussion on  “Where do you find fir trees? Are there fir trees in Puducherry? Is the Christmas tree also called  a fir tree?”

While discussing the magician, a few children performed some magic tricks using coins, books and money.

Outcome

• Students were excited and were very happy watching the puppet show. They listened with curiosity. We wouldn’t have seen that kind of interest if we had just explained the story with the textbook.
• Students were able to learn the theme of the lesson ‘greed will harm us.’ They realised that they should not be greedy for what other people have.
• They were able to understand the lesson in English.
• They were very interested in making puppets using clay and cloth.
• A few pieces of paper and a little paint the puppet ’s