on the Block, Inc.
| Media Releases and Articles | ||
| Media Kit | ||
| About Kids on the
Block |
||
| • | History | |
| • | Testimonials | |
| • | KOB
Brochure |
|
| • | Media Kit (zip file) |
|
| Fact Sheets | ||
| • | Frequently Asked Questions |
|
| • | Reporting
on Disability Issues |
|
| • | ||
Contact The Kids on the Block, Inc. |
||
Puppets
help kids tackle tough issues of illness, deployment
By Lisa Horn, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, February 29, 2004
WÜRZBURG, Germany — Melody James seems to have a lot in common with DODDS fourth-graders — she enjoys making new friends, going to the movies and has three brothers that drive her crazy. She has few concerns, except for thinking a lot about her dad who has recently deployed to Iraq.
The similarities end there, however. Melody is a puppet and a member of the Kids on the Block, a program that uses puppets to teach children about physical learning disabilities and social issues.
The Bavaria Kids on the Block troupe visited fourth and fifth-graders Wednesday at Würzburg Elementary School, where skits focused on learning disabilities, physical handicaps and deployed parents and relatives.
Thanks to an increase in funding for the program, it is the first year that the Bavaria troupe has had a complete performance schedule.
There are also Kids on the Block programs at Department of Defense Dependents Schools in the United Kingdom; Heidelberg, Germany; the Mediterranean and the Pacific.
“You can talk to kids, but they don’t always listen because you’re a teacher; an adult,” said Marty Lightle, a Kids on the Block puppeteer. “But when [the children] look at a puppet, they see it as another kid. Somehow they start talking to the puppets and … want to know what they think. It really is a magical thing.”
After each skit, the puppets encouraged pupils to ask questions. The children raised their hands in response and talked to the puppets as though they were classmates.
The deployment skit, “Wait Till the War is Over,” brought the most hands Wednesday and is typically the most emotional skit, Lightle said.
One child asked Melody, “Why do our dads have to be gone for a year?”
Melody’s answer? That’s how long the military decided it would take for mom and dad to get the job done.
Another pupil asked the puppet how it feels to have her dad gone.
“It’s so timely with all the deployments going on right now,” Lightle said. “Two weeks ago, when we did it at Ansbach, it was just a tear-jerker. The kids were talking about saying goodbye to their dads and crying. It was hard.”
"Puppets help kids tackle tough issues of illness, deployment," by Lisa Horn. Published on February 29, 2004, European Stars and Stripes. Reprinted with permission from the Stars and Stripes, a DoD publication. © 2004 Stars and Stripes.
By Lisa Horn, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, February 29, 2004
WÜRZBURG, Germany — Melody James seems to have a lot in common with DODDS fourth-graders — she enjoys making new friends, going to the movies and has three brothers that drive her crazy. She has few concerns, except for thinking a lot about her dad who has recently deployed to Iraq.
The similarities end there, however. Melody is a puppet and a member of the Kids on the Block, a program that uses puppets to teach children about physical learning disabilities and social issues.
The Bavaria Kids on the Block troupe visited fourth and fifth-graders Wednesday at Würzburg Elementary School, where skits focused on learning disabilities, physical handicaps and deployed parents and relatives.
Thanks to an increase in funding for the program, it is the first year that the Bavaria troupe has had a complete performance schedule.
There are also Kids on the Block programs at Department of Defense Dependents Schools in the United Kingdom; Heidelberg, Germany; the Mediterranean and the Pacific.
“You can talk to kids, but they don’t always listen because you’re a teacher; an adult,” said Marty Lightle, a Kids on the Block puppeteer. “But when [the children] look at a puppet, they see it as another kid. Somehow they start talking to the puppets and … want to know what they think. It really is a magical thing.”
After each skit, the puppets encouraged pupils to ask questions. The children raised their hands in response and talked to the puppets as though they were classmates.
The deployment skit, “Wait Till the War is Over,” brought the most hands Wednesday and is typically the most emotional skit, Lightle said.
One child asked Melody, “Why do our dads have to be gone for a year?”
Melody’s answer? That’s how long the military decided it would take for mom and dad to get the job done.
Another pupil asked the puppet how it feels to have her dad gone.
“It’s so timely with all the deployments going on right now,” Lightle said. “Two weeks ago, when we did it at Ansbach, it was just a tear-jerker. The kids were talking about saying goodbye to their dads and crying. It was hard.”
"Puppets help kids tackle tough issues of illness, deployment," by Lisa Horn. Published on February 29, 2004, European Stars and Stripes. Reprinted with permission from the Stars and Stripes, a DoD publication. © 2004 Stars and Stripes.