Rotation.org Writing Team

Adam & Eve

Puppet Workshop

Summary of Lesson Activity

In this lesson students will first customize a puppet script by filling-in-the-blanks. Then they will turn their faces and sock-covered hands into puppets and perform the puppet script in front of a video camera. Finally, they will watch their performance. 

Rather than simply re-telling the story of Adam and Eve, this script explores the metaphor of "trees," focusing on life application. Thus, for Rotation fans, it may be more appropriate to use this lesson after the first week of the Rotation when students have a greater familiarity with the basic story.

Scripture:

Passage: Genesis 2:4 through Genesis 3:24

Key/Memory Verses: "Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Romans 3:23-24 (NRSV)

“See, I am making all things new.”  Rev 21:5

Objectives for the Rotation and this Workshop

See Bible Background.

In addition to the concept of temptation and Adam and Eve's "hiding" from God, this puppet lesson looks at the meaning of "The Tree of Life." In a unique life application twist, it extends the "tree" metaphor found in the scripture by creatively suggesting that we are all still in God's garden with many "trees" to choose from, and are working through our good and bad choices with Christ's help.

Preparation

• Read Bible Background and scripture.
• Read through the list of puppet and stage descriptions and decide what kind of puppet materials you already have on hand or will need to pick up.
• Prepare the sock and tree puppet items in advance (see "How To Create Your Puppets" below) in order to have more time to focus on the meat of the lesson: completing the fill-in-the-blanks in the script, and working on presentation. 
• It is suggested that you copy the script to your own word processor and adjust as necessary for your emphasis, age group, and classroom constraints.  See staging notes below for more ideas.

Materials List

[For details look under "Puppet and Staging Details" below.]

Items for Staging:

People Puppets:

Sock Puppets:

Lesson Plan - "A Garden of Choices"

Open (5 minutes)

Welcome your students and then introduce today's story by doing the following . . .

Tell them that today, they are going to re-tell the story Adam and Eve using their own hands and faces as puppets. They will video tape their show and then watch themselves on video.

Quickly find out how much they know about the story of Adam and Eve, then read aloud a short version of the story to them from your favorite version of scripture, or your favorite Bible storybook.

Assigning Parts & First Script Read-Through  (15 minutes)

Give each student a copy of the Puppet Script (below in this lesson). Assign all the parts: Narrator 1 and 2, and all the hand-puppet and tree-face puppet parts.

Quickly outfit each hand-sock puppet and tree-face puppet. See the suggested puppet/tree designs below.

Sitting behind your stage area, begin a read through of the script by the narrators. 

Pause at appropriate points to suggest and practice puppet actions.

When you get to a “fill-in-the-blank” in the script, have students suggest fill-ins and have the narrators write those in to complete the script.

Your puppet script is now customized and complete, and you're ready for rehearsal.

Rehearsal (10 minutes)

Rehearse the script and videotape it even though you will do one more performance.

Debrief the rehearsal and suggest actions/changes. Now you're ready for the big-time!

Videotape the Second Performance (10 minutes)

Perform the script, pausing the camera between scenes.

Watch the Performance (5 minutes)

Close  (5 minutes)

Using water-washable markers, have students take turns drawing a Tree of Life “tattoo” on each others arms, as a reminder that we are on the look-out for God’s goodness, instead of being tempted by sinful things. Close with a prayer.

Puppet and Staging Details

Stage and Backdrop

If you don’t have a puppet stage, drape a cloth over a table and position the camera so that it will only show the puppeteers’ hands. Add a clamp flood light above and off to the side. Hang the backdrop.

How to Create your Puppets:

Turning your Students into Puppets

The script calls for the following characters: Adam, Eve, God, various random hand-people, and several kids who have their faces and heads decorated as "trees."

While you could use regular character puppets with smaller kids, the tube-sock and "tree-face" puppets will appeal to older students. Turning some students' faces into tree puppets is meant to be humorous. See more detailed suggestions below.  Don't spend a lot of time on making the kids into puppets.

Tree-Face Puppet Details:

The kids who get to be "trees" in the show get to have a lot of fun having their head and face decorated as a tree. This will especially appeal to older kids and is a fun photo-op.

Each tree puppet in the script is a student’s head that is sprouting a branch or two of plastic leaves stuck in a headband or hat for the student to wear. Each tree will also need some fake fruit on it. You can make these out of paper or draw them on faces using water-washable marker (it will eventually come off). The snake face-tree needs to have a snake in its hat. By making hats for each tree, students can change hats if you only have a few kids. The tree-head hats/headbands should be made ahead of time.

The Tree of Life Puppet (hat) in the final scene should have a cross symbol on one side of it, and picture of Jesus on the other so the puppeteer can turn the hat around at the end.

When the Tree-Heads appear in the script and on stage, they don't move around, just their facial expressions can move.

Tree-Face Puppets you will need:

Scene 2:  A Snake Tree-Face

Scene 3: There are two different "good" trees in the script, and three different “bad trees.” Depending on your class size, you could have one face per tree, or you could reduce the number of trees, or have students present their face tree while also holding up a hand with a sock puppet person.

A "bad choices" tree could wear sunglasses and headphones (too cool for God and not listening).

Another could wear scary make-up representing a bad attitude.

Another could wear tons of beauty makeup trying to be someone they are not. The more ridiculous the better.  Make sure you stick a branch in each "tree's" headband or hat to designate them as a tree in the Garden and visually connect to the tree metaphor.

Scene 4: One "Tree of Life" Head/Face Tree, with a few branches and a noticeable cross on one side, and a picture of Jesus on the other side to reveal at the right moment in the script.

Sock Puppets details and what you'll need:

To make Adam, Eve, People, and God  create simple sock puppets, decorated with hair and lips. The hair is a bit of yarn taped to the top of the sock.

God’s sock puppet can be made special by fastening cotton balls or white fiberfill below the wrist of the student/sock to form a "cloud."

Scene 2: Adam and Eve will need a sprig of plastic fig leaves to go around their wrist.

Scene 4: you will need some random “people” hand puppets looking around at the trees and responding to the Tree of Life. One student can operate two sock puppets. The more the merrier. The mouth is formed by the thumb and index finger. The socks don’t need eyes.

Props and Scenery:

• You will use a piece of red cloth to serve as the "hiding bush" in scene 2.
• You will need several pieces of “fig leafs” for the puppet-hands to wear when they come out from behind the bush. Make these using plastic ivy and some wire, or cut out of construction paper.
• You will need a simple garden backdrop. This can be a piece of butcher paper with some garden scenes drawn on it, or some plastic vines/ivy/flowers taped to it.

Practicing Your Puppets:

Work with the students to practice puppet motions. It will give them confidence and ideas. It's also a good way to interject some thoughts about the scripture.

Hand Puppet Practice:   (Adam and Eve, Random people)

Tree-Face Practice :

God Hand Practice:

Performance Suggestions:

• The script is certainly open to modification, and the kids and teachers will undoubtedly come up with variations and unexpected moments.
• The ALL CAP directions in the script are suggested action and there are many more things each puppet can do during their time on the stage, especially God's puppet, who can be on stage and off to the side all the time, reacting to everything.  Enjoy that!  
•  Pause the camera in-between scenes so that students can reset props and organize. If you press 'stop' while videotaping, your digital camera may start another video file, so use "pause" instead between scenes.
• The narrators are heard, not seen. You can combine them into one person if needed.  The teacher can sit next to the stage and cue the narrators and puppeteers.
• For smaller groups, have students do more than one role. One students can wear two socks, for example.
• For younger children, control the narration pace and action by having a teacher's helper read the narration.  
• If you have a very large group, split into two performing groups.
• If you have extra time, exchange roles and videotape it again.
• Reminder to the narrators: do not read the words in parentheses.  Those are helps for deciding how to complete the script.

Copy the following script with your mouse and paste into your word processor to modify for your use.

SCRIPT: A Garden of Faces and Hands

Scene 1: Introduction to the Garden

START CAMERA

Narrator 1:  This is the Genesis Chapter 2 story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Narrator 2:  But it a little different as you will soon see.

Narrator 1:  Our God made us a beautiful world to live in. It really has everything we need to live happy and faithful lives. Things like __________ (something people need), and ______________ (something we can't live without), and __________ (something God does for us).

GOD ENTERS THE SCENE AND LOOKS AROUND VERY SATISFIED

Narrator 1: One by one we are born into God’s world.

PUPPET HANDS START TO POP UP, AND LOOK AROUND THE GARDEN

Narrator 2:  But we are not puppets. God has given each of us the freedom to make choices in the Garden. That means we can make good choices, …and bad choices, like _______ and _________. God wants us to choose to love and obey him, take care of each other, and take care of all Creation.

Narrator 1:  But, we often don’t do what God wants us to do. And that’s the problem! We are all sinners.

GOD LOOKS SAD

PAUSE CAMERA

Scene 2: Adam and Eve and the Tree with the Snake

START CAMERA
ADAM AND EVE PUPPETS APPEAR WALKING IN THE GARDEN

Narrator 1:  When God made Adam and Eve, he told them not to do something in the Garden, but do you think they listened to God? No they did not. Typical!

TREE-HEAD SNAKE PUPPET APPEARS

Narrator 2:  Instead, they listened to that evil snake — the sin within each of us that tries to convince us that we don’t have to listen to our Creator — that we know what’s good for us.

ADAM AND EVE LISTEN TO SNAKE

Narrator 1:  And so, Adam and Eve gave in to the temptation to think they knew better than God. They ate from the fruit of that shifty-eyed, no good lying sin. And suddenly, they realized they were naked, which is to say, “ashamed” of what they had done.

Narrator 2:  Did they go running to God with an apology? No they did not! Instead, they hid in the bushes.

ADAM AND EVE HIDE UNDER RED CLOTH

Narrator 1:  God found them scared but unapologetic, and that made God not only sad, but pretty angry. And God said, “Your life is going to be hard and painful because of your disobedience.” Which is to say, “You’re not living in a garden anymore, out with you!”

GOD SHOOS AWAY ADAM AND EVE

Narrator 2: But if you think that’s the end of the story, you’re wrong.
Adam and Eve still had to leave the garden, and their sin would be a real pain the rest of their lives! But God did not abandon them. God went with them.

GOD FOLLOWS THEM

Narrator 1:  Take a bow God! You’re awesome.

GOD TAKES A BOW

PAUSE CAMERA

 Scene 3: Temptation Trees

MISC HANDS APPEAR, LOOKING AROUND

Narrator 1:  Truth is, God has planted a Garden all around us, and everyday of our lives we have good choices and bad choices we can make. You have choices that will make your life feel rich and full of good fruits.

TWO GOOD TREES POP UP

Narrator 2:  There are trees whose good fruits will make you want to __________ (something you do for others) and trees you can pick from that _______________ (something you do for God).

Those trees are awesome and you want to eat from them as much as you can!  

THE BAD TREES POP UP

Narrator 1:  But then there are those trees in the Garden we can eat from that will hurt us and hurt others. Those trees only have bad attitudes to feed us, like _________, and ___________, and __________.

Narrator 2: Their fruits often look yummy but can give you a really bad stomach ache.

Narrator 1:  But the worst tree of all is the tree that tries to tempt us away from God. That tree tempts us with distractions. It tries to make us believe that ________ and ________ (things that distract us from God) are more important than _______________ (something important God wants us to do).

Narrator 1:  And that we don’t have to _______________________ (something we do to grow in the knowledge of God). And if we listen to that trees for very long, if we eat its bad fruits, we will begin to think that God doesn’t matter or even exist.

PAUSE CAMERA

Scene 4: Following God and taking fruit from the Tree of Life

Narrator 1:  Fortunately, God has blessed us with an amazing tree in the Garden called the Tree of Life.

TREE OF LIFE APPEARS AND CROWDS OUT THE BAD TREES
PUPPET HANDS STAND OFF TO THE SIDE

Narrator 2:  The Tree of Life gives us faith, and __________, and ____________.

Narrator 1:  God himself leads us to that Tree of Life. Not everybody wants to go to it. Sin still tries to convince us to want the other trees. But the closer we get to the Tree of Life, and the more fruit we eat from it, the more we are able to resist those other trees’ temptations.

Narrator 2:  Now here is the really cool thing! God’s Tree of Life is not just a list of rules, God’s Tree of Life is a person, Jesus Christ. God himself in the flesh, continuing to live with us in the Garden. And the fruits of the Jesus tree are forgiveness, faith, and the strength to resist temptation.

JESUS APPEARS ON THE BACK OF THE TREE OF LIFE TREE-HEAD

Narrator 1:  And no matter what happens, no matter how hard you make your life by making bad choices, no matter how much you disappoint God, or others, or yourself! — the Jesus Tree will always seek you out, call you to repent your sins, and be there to feed your spirit.

Narrator 2:  And according to the Bible in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 21, eventually we will all get to live in a New Garden that only has good trees to eat from, and that’s forever.

HANDS & TREES DANCE WITH GOD!
EVERYONE SHOW THEIR FACES

STOP CAMERA

Written by:   Neil MacQueen

As always, your suggestions for this lesson are welcome!  Reply below.

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