Skits improve education

The wolf had long white fangs and a furry face and he snarled and threatened to eat Little Red Riding Hood’s poor, defenseless grandmother.

Students at Verdugo Woodlands Elementary School thought he was pretty scary, even if he was made out of a paper bag and brown cotton fluff.

About 20 first-graders in Christie Crahan’s class served as puppeteers Friday in a series of short plays based on fairy tales and fables for an appreciative audience of parents and third-graders. Arvin Artonian, 7, who played the Extra Large Billy Goat Gruff, thought the audience seemed a little larger.

“I liked it because you get to do stuff in front of like a million people,” Arvin said.

His character got one of the biggest of many laughs during a verbal exchange with the bridge troll when he was trying to cross the bridge.

“I don’t charge a dime. I don’t charge a nickel. I’ll just eat you up like a crunchy pickle,” said Christian Zartourian, 7, who played the troll.

“Cool it, bridge breath. If you get in my way, I’ll wrap your feet around your nose and you can spend your days sniffing your smelly toes,” Arvin’s billy goat responded.

It is the sixth year Crahan’s class staged the show.

“The first time we did it, I wasn’t sure first-graders could do it,” Crahan said. “I am amazed every year at what they can do as far as articulation and projection.”

The students spent weeks making puppets, learning their lines and figuring out how to work the paper characters from behind a green felt stage.

Crahan modernized the plays and changed some of the lines to get bigger laughs.

The wolves never actually get to eat anybody, and one character wished for “credit cards galore” instead of castles or gold.

Mary Agajanian, 8, was one of the third-graders in Sheila Galaz’s class who watched the play.

“It was great and funny,” said Mary, whose favorite sketch was Little Red Riding Hood. “They worked so hard to put it on.”

After they were done with the puppet plays, Crahan’s students were treated to a pizza party.

Though they did have a lot of fun, there is an academic reason for having students stage the plays, Crahan said.