What is gratitude? When you drink from a stream, Remember the spring. Chinese Proverb Dear Educators and Parents, We're so glad you are here! We share your dreams of building a safer, friendlier, more caring world for our children; and we look forward to hearing your ideas and concerns. Like you, we love the arts, technology, humor, theater, education, community, reading, nature and families. Please keep checking back to sammysnail.com as we build communities of caring together. What is our work about? How does the kids site work? What is the fan club? What are the live performances? What are the support materials? Do we offer fundraising products? Contact us with your ideas Do we have links for bullying and violence prevention? Do we list other education links? Privacy Policy What is our work about? Sammy Snail is one of our many puppet characters that have been committed to educational entertainment. We develop programs that role model the kinds of skills and values that our children need to face social, economic, environmental and technological challenges. The Theatre of Life Puppets uses sign language, singing, music, humor, theater, the arts, colorful characters and interactive activities to teach critical social competency skills, environmental education, literacy and nutrition. We provide an interactive combination of in-school performance and tie-ins to the classroom curriculum, take-home activities and Internet follow up. We are in the process of securing funding for video and CD-ROM programs. Educators and Universities have approved our programs, and our shows have garnered wildly enthusiastic responses from teachers and school children for over ten years. How does the kids site work? The Sammy Snail Trail is designed to support a wide audience with something for everyone. Everyone loves Sam Snail - from two year olds to teenagers. This site will grow rapidly to sustain their interest. Books are on line reading books with new chapters added regularly and questions and activities for children at the end of each chapter. Students are encouraged to read an actual script of the performance "The Peaceable Kingdom". This is a conflict resolution program that is also available in Spanish, "Reino Tranquilo". The Puppets pages are for school age children and include written conversations between Sam Snail and the social competency expert Mr. See in the Mr. See and Me section. Bullying, I statements and empathy issues are discussed in Sam Snail fashion. More reading opportunities exist in Puppets I know whereby children can learn more about the puppet characters. Voice files are a fun way to hear each character and allow nonreaders to participate. To answer the many questions from Sam's fans, there are Kids want to know pages. Jokes are for everyone and children are invited to send in their favorites to be included in with Sammy's jokes. Games & Art are downloadable PDF coloring pages and Big Fun with Sam activities that encourage creativity and play for younger children, school aged and their parents. This section will expand to include puppet making, theater activities and art projects that tie in to our shows. Games encourage simple to complex play and is ever expanding with the support of our sponsorships. Videos include copies of our Public Service Announcements that air on network media channels. The exciting Live Snail News brings new short downloadable videos of Sam Snail and his friends that are 3 to 5 minutes in length. Children who sign up for the fan club receive email announcements once or twice a month to tell them of new episodes. New educational programs that encourage writing, reading and the arts will be added regularly. What is the fan club? The fan club allows children to sign up on line with non personal information (first name, age, city, state and email address). The fan club notifies the registered email address once or twice a month to tell them when new Books chapters and Live Snail News segments are available. It also sponsors several Fan Club events across the United States where Sammy Snail performs. Children can also be sent a birthday email wish on their birthday. The privacy policy explains our careful protection of your rights and information. What are the live performances? Live performances take place across the country and may be held at schools, organizations, conferences or public events. Look over our complete listings by going to Programs and by reviewing our calendar. School Assembly Shows are for Pre kindergarten through Sixth Graders and for family nights. Stage Shows are for general audiences and are performed at Music Halls, Libraries and Arts in the Parks for all ages. Corporate Shows & Roasts are one-of-a kind performances that are performed for organizations, businesses and conferences. You can view clips of these events and purchase copies of the performance in the conventions section. What are the support materials? If you are a school we integrate your curriculum, school motto and language into our live shows. We weave concepts from Open Circle, Educators for Social Responsibility, Second Step, Life Skills and Community of Caring into interactive sign language songs and full-length theatrical puppet shows. You receive advance and follow-up materials, optional pre and post testing either by mail or by downloading PDF files in booking. You also receive a copy of School Songs CD for the classroom and Super Snail News; one page flyers that cover each performance and in the future will be available as PDF files. These two products are also made available for Stage Shows and general audiences. For fundraising support we offer fundraising products. Do we offer fundraising products? We offer a special incentive to raise funds for your school or group that also supports our mission of bringing educational enjoyment to children! Your students can continue delighting in the performance message in the form of appealing music CDs or soft, lush T Shirts. 20% of all sales are returned to your school to benefit your programs or purchase supplies. In the future, we will offer books, books on CD and Sammy puppets for fundraising and at our educational store. Contact us with your ideas We would love to hear from you! Do we have links for bullying and violence prevention? Listed below are organizations that provide this type of curriculum, then bully prevention links and finally conflict resolution. Organizations: Second Step www.cfchildren.org/program_ss.shtml Open Circle Life Skills Training Life Skills for Kids Community of Caring Eionline Safe and Drug Free Schools http://cecp.air.org/resources/safe&drug_free/main.htm www.mentalhealth.org/schoolviolence/safeschools.asp An Action Guide http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pathways/safeschools/ Bully Prevention: Safe Communities ~ Safe Schools Fast Facts on Bully Prevention California Dept. of Education Prevention Manual Massachusetts State Program Quick Training Aid on Bully Prevention Parents' Role in Bullying Prevention Intervention Central Education World National Youth Violence Prevention Conflict Resolution: Developing Social Competence in Children Conflict Resolution Books Classroom Management and Violence Prevention Adult / Child Conflict Resolution Do we list other education links? Listed first are puppetry organizations and then skill building with puppets followed by general organization resource links for parents and teachers. Organizations: Children's Music Network Puppeteers of America BAGOP - Boston Area Guild of Puppetry UNIMA - Puppetry NH and NE Comission on the Arts Puppet Education Magic: Two day workshop on using puppetry put on by Boston Area Puppetry Guild Contact: Judith O'Hare Skill Building with Puppets GrandPuppets By Lani Gerity, D.A., M.A., A.R.T.-B.C. Hand Puppets in Education by Sigi De Francesca, MA. Ed. Puppets by Post Puppets in the Classroom Puppets in the Drama Classroom: Directions for making several different puppets: Children's Theatre: Lesson Plans and Why Teach Drama? Learning about Mexico: Making and Using Salt Dough Human Puppets in the Classroom Early Childhood: Classroom Puppetry Puppets: Unit Plan Using Puppets and Children's Literature in the Science Classroom by Joy Lowe and Katherine I. Matthew Why Use Puppets in the Primary Classroom: ESL by Denise Ozdeniz Organizational resources: National PTA PTO Today American Federation for Teachers International Reading Association CanTeach: Resources for Educators Federal Resources for Educational Excellence Online Resources for Educators American Association of School Administrators ASCD- Educational Leadership for K-12 Teaching NAESP- National Association of Elementary School Principals The Teacher's Guide Privacy Policy To make sure that this site stays safe and fun, we make the following promises: *The information we collect is non-personal (first name, age, city and state). We only collect enough information to make activities on Sammysnail.com fun and interesting. *If you submit stories, artwork, comments or anything else to us which is posted on our site, you will be identified on our site only by first name, age, city and state. *No one will be excluded from our site for not giving us personal information. When we do ask for personal information (like an e-mail address), we will not share this information with a third party. *If we know a visitor is under the age of thirteen, we will collect a parent's permission offline (by postal mail, fax or phone) before we mail any prizes, or collect or share personal information with anyone else. *We will not sell any information or sell our fan club membership to anyone. When we are partially funded by outside sponsors, we will identify any underwriter logos with a "sponsored by" tag. We choose our underwriters carefully, to make sure that the company's products and services fit our standards and mission statement. We will not contain advertisers promoting e-commerce. *We want to make this site a place for children and families to learn and play together. If you have any comments or questions, we look forward to hearing from you. Contact us © 2004 "Sammy Snail and Friends". Sammy Snail, all puppet characters of Lesley Smith's Theatre of Life Puppets and logo are trademarks of LAF productions. All rights reserved.