Camp Grandma #4 How to Write a Script for Puppets

First, we made the puppets. Then, we made the puppet theater. Next, we tackled a simple script for puppets. Here’s how we did it.

It isn’t hard to write a script, going step by step. First, give the puppets names and personalities. Then, put them in a situation and decide how each puppet would react.

Capture all the thoughts on a big sheet of paper. When you write the thoughts down for your puppeteers to see, you’ll trigger more ideas.

Finally, thread all the ideas together, discarding ones that are too far afield, and you’ll end up with your script.

Step #1: Create the Characters

The puppets are just recycled, inanimate bits of trash until you give them names and personalities. Then they will come to life!

Write the name of each puppet on a big sheet of paper. Write down the puppet’s personality next to their name.

Here are ours, as an example. The names and descriptions are the children’s own.

Grandma’s puppet:

• Flatman–made from cardboard and foil with a red feather tail, Flatman is mean and selfish.

Miss T’s puppets:

• Swirly–created from slices of toilet paper rolls painted white, Swirly is funny, energetic, and creative.
• Goldie–designed using a small paper clip box and filled with fake jewels, Goldie is rich and generous.
• Floof–fashioned from a Costco calcium bottle, Floof is very nice and she is quite shy.

N’s puppets:

• Blue Detective–a single cup cut from a cardboard egg carton, Blue Detective is nice, nosy, and stands his ground.
• Cutie–created from a Trader Joe’s box of teabags, Cutie is the cutest puppet (according to N) so all the other puppets like him and want to be his friend.

We had made more puppets, but for our play, our limit was six. Collectively, we had six hands–and all hands were needed since every puppet was in every scene.

Step #2, Explore the Possibilities

Explore the personalities more deeply by asking questions such as:

• Who is the leader?
• Which puppet has the best ideas?
• Who will do the bad thing?
• Which puppet will need the most help in an emergency?
• Who will save the day?

Step #3, Putting Together a Script for Puppets

Consider various scenarios. Come up with many ideas as you can, then winnow out the ones that just don’t make sense for a story line.

Here’s ours:

• Pick a location (recycle bin)
• What’s happening? (recycle truck is coming down the street!)
• How will the puppets react? (we know how each puppet will react, based on the personalities we gave them.)
• Then, what happens?

Our Final Story Idea

Our story starts in the recycle bin. Garbage truck noises grow louder (sound from a YouTube video). The puppets panic!

Flatman suggests they climb, one on top each other, to reach the lid and scramble out (with him on top). Other puppets agree until they realize that the biggest puppets at the bottom (Floof and Cutie) would be trapped. So, instead, under Cutie’s command, they all work together to push over the recycle bin instead.

Once free, they hurry to the freeway and try to flag a ride. No one will pick them up–they’re roadside rubbish, after all–until Goldie offers one of her jewels.

Before they drive far, the puppets hear a cry for help. The queen is being kidnapped. The puppets jump out of the car and pile on top of the kidnapper. The kidnapper runs away, disgusted by all the trash covering him, and the puppets save the queen.

Having foiled the kidnapping, the queen, in gratitude, gives the puppets directions to a portal that would lead them to a haven for recyclables. They go through the portal and reach their happy place.

End with a Song

An original song is a simple way to make your script for puppets seem more polished.

Here’s our song, (sung to “Are you Sleeping?”) for our finale.

Land of sunshine
Land of rainbows
Here we are,
Here we are,
Now our journey’s over
We’re in fields of clover
All is well
Life is swell.

Alternate Story Idea

I had hoped we could do a story around the puppets realizing in the end that the recycle bin was where they should be. That they would be washed and cleaned and turned into new recycled items for the good of the environment and the world.

But the kids preferred their own version of the happy ending. So of course, we did that.

Resources

Here are some resources for your script:

Advice from the pros: I saw this video snippet recently and it’s great writing advice from the co-creators of South Park. Basically, stories that use “and then” to get the story from one point to the next is boring. Stories that connect from point to point with “and therefore,” or “but,” tell a more interesting tale.

Call Me Grandma story ideas: You’ll find some story suggestions for puppet plays I developed using magazine cutout puppets when the grandkids were very little.

For readymade script ideas: Try one of these two sources: Ziptales or One Way UK.

Creativity of Kids in Script Writing

As you brainstorm, the creativity and aptitude of the children may surprise you. Seven-year-old N came up with this line, “North of the sun, you will find a portal that leads to a dream come true.”

Of course, as Miss T pointed out, how would you actually go north of the sun? But the line was so pretty, we used it in our play as what the queen says to guide the trash puppets to the haven for recyclables.

N also developed a complete profile of his puppet, Cutie. “Cutie is outgoing. He is a pickpocket only of bad guys. Cutie became a pickpocket because, when he went to the job place to find a job, he had to spin a wheel to find out what job he would be doing and the wheel landed on “pickpocket.”

This was a completely imaginative idea, but we couldn’t work his backstory into our story. Maybe there’s another play to be written around Cutie, the pickpocket, another time.

Miss T also had creative ideas to contribute. When we were floundering with how the puppets could foil the kidnapper, given they were just bits of trash, she said simply, “Pig pile!” Little N and I were in hysterics, laughing, but it turned out to be an apt phrase. According to google, “U.S. Colloquial: A disorderly pile of people formed by jumping on a victim.”

“Pig pile!” became our solution–and our punch line–as the puppets hollered this battle cry and overwhelmed the kidnapper.

What Kids learn by this Activity:

This three-part Camp Grandma activity supercharged everyone’s creativity, from start to finish:

• First, the children were challenged to take recycle rubbish and create interesting “beings.”
• Then they had to use their imagination to name and personalize each puppet.
• Next, they had to use their understanding of the puppets’ personalities to build the script, projecting how each would react to different circumstances.
• The children had to connect the individual events we came up with to make a cohesive story with a beginning, middle, and end, editing and discarding parts and puppets that didn’t fit the story.
• Each child had to commit to the puppet show by learning to read their lines smoothly and with expression over the course of a few rehearsals.

While the project requires grandma guidance and a bit of nudging to shape and polish the outcome, the key learnings were not lost on the grandkids, who had fun working on the entire project. This is a great summer activity to prepare for back-to-school.

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Don’t forget to sign up for my email newsletter. Every Wednesday, I’ll give you a new idea for an activity or insight to nurture the little ones in your life. Having done with puppetry, we’ll be working on Camp Grandma #5.