Tech Tool of the Week: Puppet Pals

Welcome back and Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a restful break.

This week's highlighted technology tool is an iPad app called Puppet Pals. Puppet Pals is an easy-to-use app in which students can create simple animated movies. The first step is to choose characters for the story from a wide variety of cartoon characters. Next, choose one or more backdrops.  Then it is time to record! Students can move the characters on the screen as they tell their story. Movements and audio are recorded in real time. The final product is an animated movie that you can post on your class website, email to parents, share with the rest of your class, and more! Students can even use their own photos to create characters or backdrops.


The beauty of this app is that it can be used across grade levels and subject areas. For younger students, Puppet Pals could be used to teach storytelling skills. Older students could use Puppet Pals to explain and illustrate a vocabulary word, science concept, or math problem.  For Chinese classes, students could write and record a story using vocabulary they are learning in class. The possibilities are endless! 


Please let me know if you would like me to show you how to use Puppet Pals. It's easy to learn and fun to use! I can also help you brainstorm ideas for how you could use Puppet Pals in your class. If you are interested in watching a tutorial video, here is a link to one created by the designers of the app.


To get a taste of what Puppet Pals looks like, check out how one teacher used Puppet Pals with his 3rd graders: