Two suspicious-looking characters have been sighted about town – one blue and the other green. But no need to worry: It’s just Moonshot and Bob, recent additions to the Learning Alliance crew. The pair of blue and green spokes-puppets are filled with energy and fun in their quest to connect with children while encouraging them to read. It’s all part of the Learning Alliance’s effort to cultivate a nationwide culture where 90 percent of children are reading at grade level by third grade.
Pre-COVID, Bridget Lyons, creator of the puppet project, regularly traveled to schools to conduct early learning programs and community outreach events, providing young children with immersive, interactive literacy experiences through movement, music and literacy.
Once the pandemic reached our shores, Lyons said, “we started to think about how we could continue to reach the kids that I had been serving.”
TLA co-founder Liz Remington felt that conditions were perfect to incorporate puppets into the Moonshot curriculum.
“We need to make literacy exciting for adults and magical for kids. There is a magic to the puppets that transcends barriers. Children relate to Moonshot and Bob’s successes and challenges, their shared experiences,” said Remington. “The fact that Moonshot and Bob have stories that mirror the realities of our population here makes them a powerful teaching tool.”
Remington credits the artistic talents of Lyons, who plays Moonshot, and Cat Faust, a local artist who brings Bob to life, for the impactful success of the puppets.
“They are educators, they are artists, and they deeply understand the content that they are trying to convey. They can be playful, and because they are very intentional with what they are trying to deliver, it’s very academic without the kids or the adults even knowing that they are learning,” said Remington.
Through their anonymity, Moonshot and Bob can take on personas relatable to the children they interact with, meeting each child’s needs and supporting communication on every intellectual level.
Moonshot lives with Grandma; it’s just the two of them. They love to work in the garden and visit cultural and historical sites around town. Moonshot has been “diagnosed with dyslexia,” which provides an opportunity to talk about how difficult it can be to read and learn strategies to overcome similar issues.
Bob lives with his mother, father, older sister Sophia, and their dog in a close-knit family and they often include Moonshot in various activities.
“The power of puppetry impacts the development of language, literacy and social-emotional learning in children,” Lyons explained.
Moonshot and Bob frequently travel with the Moonshot Rocket and the Moonshot Moment Bookmobile, making appearances at community events, and they also take Word Walks around town to help build language and vocabulary skills.
Moonshot Storytime is a video offshoot of the puppet program, in which Debbie Dillon, retired Rosewood Elementary School principal, chats with Moonshot and Bob, reads stories and visits locations relevant to that day’s theme. Moonshot and Bob sometimes read the stories themselves, demonstrating their reading prowess to the children who are watching.
Debbi Arseneaux, TLA Moonshot Academy program manager, saw Moonshot and Bob as a way to further connect with students in its afterschool and summer literacy programs for struggling and at-risk K-3 students. Arseneaux developed activities and projects to help students build their vocabulary and reading skills.
“The puppets enabled us, in a time of hybrid learning, to have one foot on campus and one foot ready to pivot back to online learning if needed, with the added benefit of building a resource bank of content that could be used to support students and teachers,” said Arseneaux.
“They’re cute and fun but there is this idea that you are sharing your learning journey with someone outside of yourself. Part of the intention of Moonshot and Bob is that students can identify with them as fellow learners. As Moonshot and Bob struggle and grow so will the students.”
The Moonshot Storytime videos were so well received, another campaign was developed based on the book “A New Alphabet for Humanity,” by Leesa McGregor. The puppets visit members of the Moonshot Community Action Network – one letter at a time – to promote literacy while encouraging children to be compassionate, kind and loving.
“We’re creating a community around the puppets; a tool to deliver content to kids,” said Lyons, adding that the Learning Alliance is committed to improving education for all children.
Videos can be seen on the Learning Alliance YouTube page. For more information, visit thelearningalliance.org.
Photos by Kaila Jones and provided
