Forest Friends
A puppet-based primary prevention program designed to help children ages 5-9 learn skills in conflict resolution, decision-making and anger management. The program is designed to equip children with the coping skills they will need to enable them to grow up resilient to the risks of violence and substance abuse. Each story helps children recognize common reactions to life situations. These youngsters are then given alternative methods to deal more positively with anger, disappointment, peer pressure, and confrontational conflicts.
Forest Friends is a developmental puppet program designed to help children learn basic life skills and character enhancement that they will use their entire life. Each session includes a story portrayed by animal puppets, a discussion and an activity to reinforce the lesson conveyed by the story.
Presented weekly for six weeks, the stories build off one another so that each presentation teaches a lesson while reinforcing previous lessons. All eyes are locked on the lovable puppets that take center stage. The children can identify with the realistic situations the puppets encounter and learn how to emotionally deal with similar situations in their own life. Goals of the program include:
- Reaching children while their health related attitude and beliefs are in the formative stage.
- Increasing the interpersonal and developmental skills of children
- Educating young children in an intriguing and inspirational manner about issues pertinent to their emotional growth
- Providing children with lovable role models after which they can pattern themselves
Like the trees in the forest, our children need strong roots to grow straight and strong. Forest Friends equips children with the skills to develop strong roots while discovering their inner strength and beauty.
For additional information, please call us at 732-254-3344 or write us at mail@ncadd-middlesex.org
