puppet pals 2
During a modern language session the tutor mentioned an app called Puppet Pals. In her example, Children added French conversational dialogue to a famous painting. When a person on the picture was clicked on the dialogue was played. After the session, I downloaded the app and explored what it could do.
On Puppet pals you can create and record your own animated stories and presentations.
It is only available through the apple store (iOS)
The free app comes with a limited selection of characters and backgrounds, but more can be paid for.
There is a school edition for £7.99 which includes all the extras.
On Puppet pals you can create and record your own animated stories and presentations.
It is only available through the apple store (iOS)
The free app comes with a limited selection of characters and backgrounds, but more can be paid for.
There is a school edition for £7.99 which includes all the extras.
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The app works in stages.
- You firstly choose a scene or background for your 'play'. This could be a farm, city, stage, two wild west themes, a winter landscape, Underwater, Egypt, or the Moon!
- After, you can choose the characters/actors you want to include.
- Your own photos can also be added! Your face can be added onto a body!
Drawing round the face and matching the lips takes some skill and practise! I haven't quite mastered it!
- There is an option to mix and match bodies.
- You record what you want the characters to say by speaking into the microphone whilst touching the character.
- You can move the arms and legs by dragging them. The character can also be moved around.
- There are also animals and vehicles which the characters can ride.
- There is a choice of music you could include.
- There are simple control to record, stop, play back and save.
- There was also a clear and simple tutorial at the beginning.
- The option symbols were slightly confusing at first, but I soon worked out what they did. This would have to modelled or a help sheet could be given to younger children.
- I then saved the animation and exported it into my videos. This can then be loaded on to a computer, sent as an email or published on You Tube.
Ideas and Thoughts:
The school version of the app offers many different themes, including Greek, Egyptian and Prehistoric. This means it could be based on a History topic.
The animations could be made in separate sections or on separate tablets and combined using windows movie maker. Perhaps each group of children could be given a scene or a topic and these could be joined to make a whole class production.
Puppet Pals is great for creating storyboards, character writing, script writing, presenting reports, speaking and listening, practising modern language skills, retelling stories or historical events, and has many other great cross-curricular
To act out misconceptions in science.
It is a great way for shy or less outgoing children to present their ideas to the class! They are almost using a puppet to speak for them.
Puppet pals is a very easy app to use and can be used by children independently or in groups. The option to upload your own photos, means that the choice of characters to create is unlimited. The story possibilities really are endless!