Gold Award: Puppet Theater

The puppet theater in the Youth Department has been a staple in the library for many many years.  As a well-loved piece of furniture, it has recently been in rough shape.  Luckily, we were approached by Girl Scout, Katherine Godbey with an amazing opportunity - a brand new puppet theater!  To complete he Gold Award, Katherine built a custom, wheelchair-accessible puppet theater to donate to the library.  Here's what Katherine has to say about her experience:

Hi! My name is Katherine Godbey.  I have been a Girl Scout since 1^st grade. I have had lots of fun volunteering, exploring, learning new skills, and having fun with my fellow Girl Scouts.  I have earned my Bronze and Silver Awards in part to build the tools I needed to start earning the Gold Award.  My previous projects helped children relax while waiting for medical appointments and encouraged literacy through the use of reading beds at a local elementary school.  To earn my Gold Award, I wanted to continue to fight illiteracy, so I partnered with Ms. Allison Boyer and the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

An illiterate child may grow into an illiterate adult without intervention. In an article by Emily Schmidt accessed on March 3, 2024 from apmresearchlab.org, she states: "About 130 million adults in the U.S. have low literacy skills according to a Gallup analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Education. This means more than half of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 (54%) read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level." She goes on to emphasize that over 1 in 5 adults have difficulty using or understanding print materials.  Basically, an illiterate child may grow into an illiterate adult without intervention and with lack of early reading interests.

Libraries encourage children to read and therefore decrease illiteracy.  Early literacy (preliteracy) refers to the skill children develop before they actually begin reading. These skills include: narrative skills, vocabulary, phonics and print awareness, print motivation, and letter knowledge. The library provides many ways to build these skills, including singing and rhyming, imaginative play (trains, blocks, kitchen, and PUPPETS), story times, in addition to traditional skills of reading books. Therefore, anything that makes the library a desirable place for kids and parents to go, will help literacy.

So, I decided to get a team together to build an easily accessible puppet theater that kids will be able to freely interact with others through fun means such as storytelling using provided puppets and storyboards. I have learned from artsconnection.org that when children vocalize, physicalize, and visualize stories through puppet theaters, children, "learn literacy concepts such as settings, characters, dialogue, and plot." This imaginative play will build brain connections that is necessary for reading skills according to the MO Department of Education's website. Therefore, by providing a more kid friendly and accessible puppet theater at the public library, this will encourage literacy skills.

My goal is to produce a positive experience for children in a place of reading to improve literacy. A new puppet theater that is built with the size of children in mind instead of adults, will provide a safe space in the library where children over the course of many years to come will be able to feel comfortable interacting with other children, parents, and grandparents while gaining the necessary brain development for reading. With hopefully more kids (including possibly the disabled) enjoying the new accessibility of the new puppet theater, more kids will have the chance to read new stories and use their imagination to come up with a show.

Lastly, thank you to my incredible Girl Scout Gold Award Team! They taught me the skills required to create both the new assessable puppet theater and the story books to improve literacy. Several also donated money along with their time and counsel.

• Mr. Matt Beussink
• Ms. Allison Boyer
• Mrs. Teresa Gier
• Mr. Andrew Godbey
• Mr. Alexander Godbey
• Mr. Edward Godbey
• Mrs. Pauline Godbey
• Mr. John Hamby
• Mr. Mike Higgins
• Miss Loralei Martin
• Mrs. Terri Martin
• Miss Isla McClendon
• Mrs. Janet O’Neal
• Mrs. Darlene O’Neal
• Ms. Joan O’Neal
• Mr. William O’Neal
• Miss Emry Robicheaux
• Mr. Adam Van Hoogstraat
• Miss Jade Van Hoogstraat

The Cape Girardeau Public Library would like to thank Katherine for her hardwork and amazing skill at creating a new puppet theater! Be sure to stop by the Youth Department to put on a show and take a quick survey to help Katherine complete her project!