A Closer Look at the "Puppetmaster" App for Sunday School

When you watch the video demo below, you'll "get" my interest in this app.

For $2.99 your kids use their own body movements(!) to teach a puppet to move, or they can move the puppet with their finger touches on the screen. They begin by taking a photo of a drawing they've made (or any graphic) and the app turns it into a moveable, posable puppet which you can then turn into an animated sequence of the puppet moving. Very cool. Check out the video demo below.

There’s a learning curve, so best to schedule its introduction and practice use over a more than one Sunday in a row. Also a good idea to have a helper become familiar with the tool.

How could you use it in a lesson plan? You could assign different characters in a story to different tablets, and have each kid come up with their "puppet" scene to show and share when the story was retold. Bible stories with varied scenes, dialog, and emotions that can be acted out would work best —just as they do with traditional puppets.

Movement-Motions are a great way to remember a story and get into its head.

• What did the prodigal's father look like when he was running toward his son?
• What did the priest do when he saw the bloodied man and stepped to the other side?
• What did Moses do and act like when he split the Red Sea?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSfk_nPJV58

Use touchscreen or camera to move the characters you create