GLOWING OPT REVIEWS & KUDOS
Here's what people and publications 'round the world have said about OPT book and presentations by Linda Sorenson! Longer reviews and newspaper stories are linked.
U.S. PUBLICATIONS
Using inexpensive everyday materials, such as a plastic bag ‘stomach’ and paper bag ‘kidneys,’ children can readily empathize with these likable characters that ‘talk’ about how they feel. . . The Organic Puppet Theatre also reinforces the concept of health and preventive medicine. "The children will learn time and again that the body is affected as a whole. What affects one organ, affects them all."
Curriculum Product Review REVIEW
The Organic Puppet Theatre activities can be a full-hour project, a full unit, or built into existing health education programs in elementary schools. Reaching children with important messages that lay the foundation for healthy choices throughout their lives is the goal of this book.
Journal of Rural and Small Schools REVIEW
See the body come alive through puppets, songs, and fun.
Head Start Bulletin REVIEW
The activities in The Organic Puppet Theatre are excellent for preschoolers and elementary school students. This is a fun type book that uses educational puppetry to explore the organs of the body. . . All together, it has the potential for a great “organ recital.”
Puppetry Journal REVIEW
The book provides practical comments and advice concerning the children's reactions to each part of the body and encourages the youngsters to participate in unique and fun ways to unlock the mysteries of their bodies.
Journal of Nutrition Education REVIEW
It offers many ideas to inspire the creation of additional puppets and presentations. In fact, the authors encourage instructors and puppeteers alike to have fun developing their own productions! Although The Organic Puppet Theatre was designed for young elementary schoolchildren, its material can be easily adapted for younger or older children or even for adults.
World Neighbors Magazine REVIEW
Schultz and Sorenson are energetic authors with an innovative approach to the elementary study of the human body.
May we all be blessed with their smiling organs.
Encounters Magazine, Science Museum of MN REVIEW
Learn how lungs breathe, teeth chew, and stomachs get upset (if you don't feed them right) by seeing them in action! The Organic Puppet Theatre is the one book you'll need to help your kids explore the wonders of their bodies in an imaginative, inexpensive and informative way!
Home Education Magazine REVIEW
This oblong, spiral-bound book is filled with inspirational homemade puppets that are working models of organs in the human body. . . Sample songs and plays are also provided, but throughout the book, the authors stress that you can use these puppets in many, many ways and are only limited by your imagination. Correct terminology is used and anyone who makes one of these puppets will understand the function of the organ it represents.
Minnesota Reviews REVIEW
Scripts and original songs about the body allow the teacher to emphasize the importance of good eating habits, exercise, and a balanced lifestyle in an entertaining fashion. Workshops about the material are also available.
Staying Well School News REVIEW
Many diagrams, patterns, and exact directions show how to create colorful, functional puppets to represent organs of the body. Materials needed are simple and inexpensive; sample scripts and songs are in the book. The ideas here have been used at the Science Museum of Minnesota, University of Minnesota Hospitals, as well as many elementarty schools and day care centers.
New Jersey Education Association REVIEW
U.S. LEADERS & AUTHORS
It's THE best children's book for building an interest in the human body I've ever seen and I continue to laud its qualities! Many past students of mine, several now in medical school, still tell me what an impression that book made on them.
Joann Nabb, NC educator/workshop leader
OPT is timeless! It is interactive, fun, entertaining, and yet incredibly effective for planting concepts of health and physiology in children. With hands-on activities, OPT is perfect for engaging students in an interactive, student-centered way.
Megan Baumler, PhD, RD, Prof. of Nutrition and Dietetics, Mount Mary University, Milwaukee, WI
The Organic Puppet Theatre unites the creativity of theatre, music, and art as methods for teaching young children about the wonders of the human body. The participation that children experience will act to reinforce positive health attitudes and constructive health behaviors. It is an important resource for any child care worker who is committed to helping children value the health of their bodies.
Paula Peterson, Author, Ready, Set, Grow
I like it—it’s active – there’s creativity in the book, but it lets you be creative too.
You’ll like it! And I’ll bet your students will too!
But beware: you may be hooked on this kind of teaching.
Dale Shaeffer, Former Director, Mayo Medical Museum
5-STAR OPT REVIEW:
I used this book several years ago when I was homeschooling two of my children. We used it in a co-op setting, although it would work well in any setting! The activities are fun, creative, attention grabbing, and use items commonly found around the home.
One of the activities that really stuck with our family was the activity about the stomach. You color and cut out the provided outline of a stomach (with a kid-friendly face on it), and tape it to the outside of a zip-lock bag. The object of the lesson is to teach how the stomach digests food, which is demon-strated by putting a bit of water in the bottom of the bag, adding crackers, and squishing the bag around like your stomach does when digesting, thus breaking down the crackers. The kids loved it!
This book is good for a variety of age groups, and gives a good starting point for deeper instruction on how the different parts of the body functon.
Units include the lungs, teeth, skull & brain, skeletal hand, urinary system (that one was a scream), & the heart. This one is a keeper.
Coloradogirl
Kids from 22 countries creating their unique, colorful Teeth puppets in my OPT workshop at the International School in The Hague, The Netherlands
GLOBAL PUBLICATIONS
This is an active form of health education combined with entertainment. The best recipe a teacher can use. It is easily adaptable to any country in the world.
Hygie – International Journal of Health Education (France) REVIEW
A fascinating and innovative exploration of the construction and function of parts of the body, using puppets made out of everyday materials. Young children will love the experience of making paper stomachs, lungs, teeth, brains, hands, and urinary systems and hearts and then using them in a variety of experimental and dramatic ways. A fun approach to understanding one's body and how to keep it healthy.
Global Education News (Great Britain) REVIEW
The underlying emphasis of the book is fun and participation, and although it has been developed in a North American setting, it would be most appropriate for many developing country health education programs. I would highly recommend this book to education and health workers as an innovative tool for presenting health information.
Synergy, Canadian Initiatives for International Health REVIEW (English and French versions)
REVIEWS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES
WORKSHOP. HEALTH FAIR & PRESENTATION KUDOS
For learning about the human body, The Organic Puppet Theatre cannot be beat.
Jane Neumann, Youth Program Director, Science Museum of MN
I have enjoyed using your wonderful Organic Puppet Theatre book both in classes at the Ontario Science Centre and in science workshops across Ontario. The classes were a huge success.
Judith Arrowood, Ontario Science Centre, Canada
Thank you for presenting at our Health Fair. The evaluations and comments on your program were unfailingly excellent. We are grateful for the time and talent you contributed to make our Health Fair a success. Again, for the Day Care Team and myself, thank you.
Since N. Duus, PHN, Coordinator Health Fair, Minneapolis Health Dept.
The ideas can be easily adapted to the hospital environment. Outfitted in gown, mask, and gloves, Terry enchanted the isolation patients with Al and Veoli (the lungs) and other puppets.
Carol Lewallen, Child Life Specialist, U of MN Hospitals
