Kate Snyder has found puppets to be an effective way of getting through to young students.

By Nya O’Neal, Mon Valley Independent

A teacher at The Village in California, Pa., is using a unique skill to help educate her students.

Kate Snyder has been selected as a featured presenter at The Work of Fred Rogers: A Cross-Content Conference on Fred’s Legacy in Action Today, set for June 21-22 in Latrobe.

She and her co-presenter Dr. Sam Patterson from Echo Horizon School in Culver City, Calif., will share their experience and knowledge with educators from across the country.

The two-day conference will be at the Fred Rogers Center on the Saint Vincent College campus. Registration will open Friday and remain open until the event, Snyder and Patterson will present on the first day.

Snyder grew up in Howard, Pa., where she says she had a lot of educational opportunities — so many that it was overwhelming, especially in her entrance into high school.

She graduated from Bald Eagle High School in Wingate, Pa., and enrolled in the early childhood education program at California University of Pennsylvania in 2015. She graduated in 2019 and started her career at The Village, where she has been a lead teacher for four years.

The Village provides child care and preschool. Scholarships are available for single parents furthering their education to provide a better life for their children. The Village also operates the Rutledge Institute for Early Childhood Education.

While working there, the Al’s Pals curriculum was introduced, using puppets to teach various lessons to children. Snyder already had experience performing with puppets, as her family had a church troupe called God’s Hands Puppets. She decided to give Al’s Pals a shot and was surprised by how the children latched onto the puppets.

Of course with anything new, there was a learning curve and about halfway through the school year the kids were “really engaged.”

At the end of the curriculum, Al the puppet had to go away, and the kids immediately asked, “When is he coming back?”

Snyder was taken aback and quickly told the kids he had to go out of town. But they missed him and were “sad that he was gone, always ask- ing when is he coming back and when Kiesha is coming back.” Kiesha and Ty are the other puppets that join Al in their lessons.

Snyder spoke about there being a lot of lessons included in the Al’s Pals curriculum, but explained that the lessons could be spaced out throughout the week so the children could absorb the information well.

“We could have part of the lesson taught on Monday and then later in the week we ask, ‘Do you remember Al’s story on Monday?’” referring to the prior lessons help the students to remember.

Snyder shared a small piece from her conference presentation, saying, “This curriculum is a great way to take in lessons, a way to break up the monotony.” Using puppetry to creatively teach the lesson engages the children and make learning fun and memorable.

In addition to her participation in the conference, Snyder has been invited to be a member of The Fred Rogers Inquiry Educators group of Educators’ Neighborhood for the 2024-25 school year. She will be studying Rogers’ life and work and presenting her research at a future conference.

Rogers has been an inspiration for Snyder since her childhood because his lessons taught her “acceptance toward situations.” Snyder said she “grew up sheltered” from the world, but Rogers gave her an opportunity to see the world and what was out there in a safe way.

He taught her how to greet others from different parts of the world “with love and acceptance.” Following Rogers’ work, she hopes to continue to teach her students empathy and acceptance.

Nya O’Neal is a student at Howard University and one of 10 Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer interns. Nya is interning with the Mon Valley Independent.