Sharing the art of shadow puppetry at the Seminar for PreSchool Chinese Language Teachers 2021

Ms Liu Cuixian uses shadow puppets to engage her K2 pre-schoolers in her Chinese Language lesson. In the lessons, the pre-schoolers learnt that shadow puppetry is an ancient form of story-telling, also known as shadow play. Flat cut-out figures made by Ms Liu were held between a source of light and a translucent screen. The pre-schoolers were delighted to see how the cut out figures could be represented in this form and waited eagerly for their turn to try it out.

The pre-schoolers also learnt to use their hands to form different animals. During the lesson, you could hear the pre-schoolers communicating excitedly with their friends about the different animals they formed using their hands. The pre-schoolers would explain in Mandarin, “Look I made a dog, rabbit, bird...”

The pre-schoolers also learnt how the size of the shadow can change by varying the distance of the light shone on an object against a screen. They were focused and engaged throughout the different lessons over a period of 8 days, as they had opportunities to practise forming shadow animals on the screen. Through these hands-on activities, the pre-schoolers not only picked up the skill of shadow puppetry but also developed their Chinese Language skills as they learnt how to express and describe the puppets that they formed.

For the innovative way which Ms Liu used shadow puppetry to engage her class, she was invited to present at the Chinese Language at the Seminar for Pre-school Chinese Language Teachers. The pre-recorded session allowed Ms Liu to participate alongside other experienced practitioners to share their valuable teaching experiences. The annual seminar will stream live on 10 July and will be attended by Minister of State, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Social and Family Development, Ms Sun Xueling.

The learning that the pre-schoolers experienced during Ms Liu’s lessons had indeed been impactful and memorable. This magical medium of creative story-telling brought to life simple characters from story books in our MK classes. The children dramatised a familiar story “We are Good Friends” through the use of shadow puppets and found renewed interest in telling the story. From Ms Liu, we too learnt that shadow puppetry can encourage story-telling and build our students’ foundation in story writing.