Chattanooga’s Kids on the Block recently received a $10,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga to help continue a limited number of personal safety educational programs presented to children in the Hamilton County school system free of charge.
According to Kelly Williams, executive director of CKOB, two of the most requested topics presented to young children first through third grade in our community, are personal safety and bullying. “With severe cuts in local funding threatening to reduce the number of CKOB programs provided free of charge to the schools in Chattanooga, this grant will help us continue to offer our schools a limited number of personal safety educational programs,” said Williams.
Research indicates that children in this age group are developmentally able to react to characters that are peer role models. During the performances, according to Williams, children see the puppet characters as their friends and are able to open up to them and ask questions.
In a recent survey of local elementary school students on the topic of bullying, 67 percent of the students showed a positive change in knowledge, attitude and behavior after seeing the CKOB educational program focused on bullying.
Pre and post testing of local elementary school teachers indicated a 10 percent positive change in classroom behavior more than 30 days following the CKOB educational program on bullying and personal safety-child abuse.
Fifth grade student Paige said, “The show was awesome. It really taught me how to control my anger.”
Tiara, a second grade student, said, “I learned that it’s important to talk about my feelings.”
Devyn, a third grade student, said, “I liked your program. It was exciting and funny. I felt safer after watching it. Now I know child abuse is never a kid’s fault.”
Through these programs, life-size puppets use nationally researched scripts to present important safety lessons on child abuse awareness and prevention, stranger danger, bullying, gangs, violence, anger management, and positive self-esteem. The puppets interact with the children during the performance stressing vital safety rules including:
Never use violence when in a bullying situation; walk away and tell a trusted adult;
Always check first with parents or the person in charge before you go anywhere or get into a car, even if it is with someone you know;
Always check first with your parents or a trusted adult before you accept anything from anyone, even from someone you know;
Always take a friend with you when you go places or play outside;
Know your name, address, telephone number and parents’ full names;
Say NO loudly if someone tries to touch you or treat you in a way that makes you feel scared, uncomfortable or confused; and
Always tell your parents or trusted adults if you feel scared, uncomfortable or confused.
These are just a few of the tips the puppets provide through the educational program performances to help keep children safe.
CKOB practices a Japanese art form of puppetry called Bunraku (pronounced Boon-ra-ku). The puppeteer dresses in black from head to toe and becomes the shadow behind the hand and rod puppet. KOB puppets consist of characters that are three to four feet tall. They dress in real kids’ clothes, have distinctive personalities and portray for children a world of real life situations.
It takes almost six months to become a fully trained puppeteer. During their training time, a puppeteer needs to become knowledgeable about all topics that are presented so that they can answer any question kids might have. Mastering the art of Bunraku requires months of practice to coordinate the puppet’s mouth actions with the puppeteer’s voice, create movements that make the puppet appear to come to life and maintain the puppet’s eye contact with the audience.
Classroom presentations for elementary school aged children are the main focus of CKOB.”Our programs inspire children to ask questions like: What do you do when someone asks you to do something with your body that you don’t want to do, and how do I deal with a bully when no one listens to me,” said Williams.
Last year, CKOB performed 423 educational programs serving over 64,000 children and adults in their 15 county service area including Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.
For more information on CKOB or to schedule an educational performance, visit www.kidsontheblock.net or call (423) 757-5259.
Source: Chattanooga Kids on the Block