Puppet Pals

This week, I was able to pick an app/tool of my choice that I have never used before and explore what it has to offer! I picked Puppet Pals, which is an app that allows students to make digital stories nice & easy! The app lets you create stories by using different characters and different sceneries while using the microphone to allow those characters to speak.

When first getting the app, I was so excited – the little kid in me came out right away! Which is perfect because otherwise I probably would’ve thought the app was stupid. ANYWAYS, Puppet Pals starts off explaining how to use the app which is good except that it explains everything fairly quickly and can possibly be challenging for some students.

Once getting past all of the instructions, it was time for the fun to begin! One slight problem… the free version definitely isn’t as good as the full version would be. Obviously, the full version is always going to be better, but this free version didn’t really let me explore me. For example; there weren’t very many different characters I could use and using your own picture as a character is only offered in the full version (I was probably the most upset about that).

This is what I came up with:

Everytim I watch it and laugh about it because I really had no idea what to talk about. I came up with the video in no time at all, so it makes you think about what your students would be able to come up with! How exciting 🙂

After making the video, I decided to explore the app a little bit. I came across “lesson plans for teachers” which is really nice for new teachers or teachers that are using the app for the first time! There is also a code pops up before entering the teacher section; for example it will say “eleven, four, nine” and you will have to enter it by pressing the correct numbers. This is a good tool that the app has to make sure that young students aren’t doing anything besides making their videos.

There is also a feature that allows you to take a picture from your photo album and make it the background in your video (see next video) which is awesome if here is a specific scenery you want to use but the app sadly doesn’t have.

All in all, I definitely think that this app should be used in classrooms throughout elementary school because it allows students to show that they understand by making their own video and they especially love doing it! If using it in the classrooms, you would need the full version for your students just because there aren’t enough options for characters which may consist the students of being frustrated that there isn’t the right charatcer for their story.