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Creative Teaching Ideas for

THE ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO

by Carlo Collodi (1883)


ON THIS PAGE: LitWits hands-on activity ideas and instructions, teaching topics, learning links, and more. Scroll on!

Printables for purchase

About the story

This isn’t Disney’s tale! The Adventures of Pinocchio  is indeed about a wooden puppet who lies, but this story runs much deeper than that.  Gepetto, the marionette’s maker, has no sooner created a boy than the puppet begins to wreak havoc. From “birth” on, his choices are selfish and short-sighted, but with every bad decision his mind and heart expand, until finally, faced with Gepetto’s loss, he risks his own life to try and save his “father.” 

The immature, ungrateful, thoughtless marionette is every human in the works, and his story of mistakes is the story of us all.  Pinocchio  is also a heartwarming model of unconditional love, and an inspiration to anyone struggling for authenticity and identity.

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Hands-on Fun

Making a plan . . .


There are many ideas in this Hands-on Fun section—don't feel you have to do them all! Go with whatever works best for you and your kids. If you want to focus on a particular teaching point, our Takeaway Topics section can help you narrow down the activity options. And you can enhance discussions during any activity with audiovisual aids from Learning Links or story objects from Prop Ideas.

You might find our narrative arc worksheet helpful for sequencing your activities, teaching the important concept of the arc, and helping kids learn how Carlo Collodi put Pinocchio together.
Narrative arc & other printables

Pasta Penne-occhio

A LitWits activity from the Exposition

What do we think of when we think of Italy? A long list of appealing things, including pasta and our our anti-hero puppet.  So we combined both of those Italian wonders into a pasta marionette!

Making a pasta Pinocchio puppet gave us a “way in” to talk about allegory. It’s pretty clear the stringless marionette represents anyone with a mind of his or her own – or a society of people who won’t be “manipulated.” Kids as young as seven were enthralled with the idea that a book can say more than it seems to — and they loved making their own marionette as Gepetto did (without dangerous tools). 

INSPIRATION

As soon as he reached home, Geppetto took his tools and began to cut and shape the wood into a Marionette.

“What shall I call him?” he said to himself. “I think I’ll call him PINOCCHIO. This name will make his fortune. – Ch. 3

SUPPLIES


As we wired and strung our little guy together, we talked about Carlo Collodi’s background as a would-be priest, a journalist, and a political “lampooner.”

We also learned some fascinating pasta facts — for one thing, Pinocchio’s “torso tube” was once used for smuggling garlic to Prussia!

Playing Italian opera music in the background created a theatrical mood and gave us another Italian export to appreciate and discuss.

DIRECTIONS (play video):
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BookBites: Loved to the Core

A LitWits activity from the Rising Action

BookBites is the part of our literary experience when we get to “taste the story.”  We choose a food right out of the book, and it has to meet at least one criterion:

  • it’s important to a plot point
  • it has thematic significance
  • it’s unfamiliar for reasons of culture, era, or location

To get a taste of the theme of unconditional love, we ate the pears Gepetto was to have had for lunch, which he unhesitatingly handed to his hungry marionette. Pinocchio ungratefully demanded he peel them, and refused to eat the cores. The pears not only symbolize Gepetto’s sacrificial, unconditional love, but Pinocchio’s ingratitude and immaturity. (We ate the cores and skins, as did Pinocchio, eventually.)

INSPIRATION

Geppetto, who had understood nothing of all that jumbled talk, except that the Marionette was hungry, felt sorry for him, and pulling three pears out of his pocket, offered them to him, saying:

“These three pears were for my breakfast, but I give them to you gladly. Eat them and stop weeping.”
“If you want me to eat them, please peel them for me.”

“Peel them?” asked Geppetto, very much surprised. “I should never have thought, dear boy of mine, that you were so dainty and fussy about your food. Bad, very bad! In this world, even as children, we must accustom ourselves to eat of everything, for we never know what life may hold in store for us!”

“You may be right,” answered Pinocchio, “but I will not eat the pears if they are not peeled. I don’t like them.”

And good old Geppetto took out a knife, peeled the three pears, and put the skins in a row on the table.

Pinocchio ate one pear in a twinkling and started to throw the core away, but Geppetto held his arm.

“Oh, no, don’t throw it away! Everything in this world may be of some use!”

“But the core I will not eat!” cried Pinocchio in an angry tone.

“Who knows?” repeated Geppetto calmly.

And later the three cores were placed on the table next to the skins.
Pinocchio had eaten the three pears, or rather devoured them. Then he yawned deeply, and wailed:

“I’m still hungry.” – Ch. 7
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Puppetry Playbill

A LitWits activity from the Rising Action

If Pinocchio had gone to school instead of the marionette show, this story would have ended much sooner, and differently. But he was distracted by music, and quickly gave up his fourpence, his promise, and his future. To give the kids a feel for the allure of the show, we had them design their own colorful playbill, starring our bad boy himself.  For authenticity’s sake, his outfit was designed exactly as Gepetto made it.

INSPIRATION

Suddenly, he found himself in a large square, full of people standing in front of a little wooden building painted in brilliant colors.

“What is that house?” Pinocchio asked a little boy near him.

“Read the sign and you’ll know.”

“I’d like to read, but somehow I can’t today.”

“Oh, really? Then I’ll read it to you. Know, then, that written in letters of fire I see the words: GREAT MARIONETTE THEATER.”

“When did the show start?”

“It is starting now.”

“And how much does one pay to get in?”

“Four pennies.”

“I’ll give you four pennies for your A-B-C book,” said a ragpicker who stood by.

Then and there, the book changed hands. And to think that poor old Geppetto sat at home in his shirt sleeves, shivering with cold, having sold his coat to buy that little book for his son! – Ch. 9

SUPPLIES

Template, patterned paper, & other printables
DIRECTIONS
(There's also a video below that walks you through the process.)

Take a look together at some puppet show advertising posters like this one (notice use of color and typeface) and this one (notice use of detail and contrast) and this one (notice interaction between character and text).  Talk about things these posters have in common. What makes them eye-catching? What makes them useful? What information should be on a poster to make sure people show up at the right event, at the right time?

After you’ve brainstormed a little bit and had some fun analyzing the ads, let the kids loose to create their own, featuring Pinocchio himself. Encourage them to employ all their wits and creativity to make this poster so arresting, so clever and remarkable, that it would stop a foolish wooden puppet in his tracks!

To create an authentic outfit for their Pinocchios, have your kids cut a flowered suit for him out of paper, 2) press stale bread crumbs into glue for his cap, and 3) tear bits of thin bark into shoe-size bits (or crumble and apply like glitter).

While the kids in our workshop created their posters, we talked about Pinocchio’s eagerness to give up his clothes, his fourpence, whatever it took to get in to that puppet show — never mind that Gepetto had given him everything he had. We also learned about the history of marionettes. 
Template, patterned paper, & other printables

Lamp-Wick’s Last Words

A LitWits activity from the Resolution & Falling Action

No author can explain or include everything that might have happened in a story, but we sure wish Carlo Collodi had added a little more to that last conversation between Pinocchio and his dying donkey friend. So we took over where the author left off!  We distributed the creative writing worksheet, then had the kids work in pairs — as Pinocchio and Lamp-Wick once did! — to script that missing dialogue.

INSPIRATION

As soon as Pinocchio went into the stable, he spied a little Donkey lying on a bed of straw in the corner of the stable. He was worn out from hunger and too much work. After looking at him a long time, he said to himself: “I know that Donkey! I have seen him before.”

And bending low over him, he asked: “Who are you?”

At this question, the Donkey opened weary, dying eyes and answered in the same tongue: “I am Lamp-Wick.”

Then he closed his eyes and died.

“Oh, my poor Lamp-Wick,” said Pinocchio in a faint voice, as he wiped his eyes with some straw he had picked up from the ground. – Ch. 36

When their scripting was finished, we encouraged the kids to perform their freshly scripted scenes, with as much melodrama as possible. This was terribly fun, and we do mean terribly.

We even agreed to be the doomed Lamp-Wick when anyone’s partner declined. 
Alas, we even dared say we were ALL EARS.
Creative writing & other printables

Printables Previews

The worksheets and printables used for our activities are sold as a complete set.

Common Core State Standards Alignment for the comprehensive use of our teaching ideas and materials is also included for grades 3, 4, 5 and 6. 
DETAILS

The LitWits Kit

Pack up for the field trip!

A LitWits Kit is a bag or box of supplies you pack up and give to each child right before you begin your "field trip" through the story.  You might be doing one-off projects as you read through the book together, or you might do everything in this guide from top to bottom after the book has been read. However you explore this book in LitWitty ways, kids love the anticipation of opening their kit.

If you'd like to build LitWits Kits for your kids, you could easily arrange the items in a bag, basket, or story-relevant container.  Honestly, it's just as much fun to create a kit as it is to open one!

To make it all the more fun, our printables for many books include special "story packaging" for certain activity supplies, including BookBites. Click the button below for a specific list of contents for this book. 
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Takeaway Topics

Why we chose this book for a "field trip"
This story tugs at our hearts in an achey tender way, as moms, for the "lost boys" trying so hard to be real--to find out who they really are, and have been all along, if they only knew what they were really made of.  But kids, lacking that maternal/paternal sensitivity, will absorb Pinocchio's lessons with more laughter than ache or angst.  A book that shares critical truths in such fun, subtle ways is a shoe-in for us—so we chose Pinocchio for one of our experiential workshops. And it's packed with great takeaway topics, which we're sharing below.

In our workshops, we did our best to make these teaching points tangible, meaningful, and memorable in the kids' hands. It's amazing how much kids can learn while they're "just" having fun! 

Happy teaching!
Becky and Jenny

Takeaway 1

Authenticity

As a fairy tale, the whole plot of this book is unreal – and yet, as in all great books, it tells us something real about ourselves. And from the very first paragraph, this story is about the value of the real over unreal: Are Cherry and Polendina the real names of the two carpenters? Do the two men have real hair?  Are they proud of that?  Gepetto, intends to carve an unreal boy — a marionette — from the wood.  But in what ways is Pinocchio not just a marionette?  In what ways is he just a marionette?  For most of this book Pinocchio is a fake person who ignores (or squashes) Truth, tells lies, and breaks promises. Something has to happen inside him to become fully real.

Other characters, too, represent something unreal or untrue--for instance, the fox who wasn’t really lame, and the cat who wasn’t really blind. The consequences for them are different from the consequences for Pinocchio, and it's worth talking about why the faux boy ends up better than the real (but false inside) animals.

Hands-on connections in this guide:  “Pasta Penne-occhio” project, “Puppetry Playbill” project, “Puppeteering” activity, creative writing worksheet, props that represent the unreal or incomplete (wig, log, puppet foot, harlequin mask, Pinocchio doll or puppet; the snake represents distractions and obstacles)
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Takeaway 2

Marionettes

 In 19th-century Italy, marionette shows were very popular, partly because puppets can do things real actors can’t. (I casi son tanti, as Gepetto says to Pinocchio in the original ltalian, or “So many things can happen.”) Marionettes are distinguished from regular puppets by the use of strings – which require a puppeteer, or manipulator. That fact raises questions that inspire conversations about being manipulated. In fact Carlo Collodi founded two magazines that lampooned politicians, who are master manipulators. If politicians are seen as the puppeteers, who are the marionettes? What might Collodi have meant by making Pinocchio a stringless, independent marionette? What does it mean to have a mind of your own?

Hands-on connections in this guide: “Pasta Penne-occhio” project, “Puppetry Playbill” project, “Puppeteering” activity, creative writing worksheet, props that represent the theater (wig, puppet foot, harlequin mask, Pinocchio doll or puppet)
PRINTABLES SET

Takeaway 3

Unconditional Love

There are many characters in this story who exert control over Pinocchio at different times--who manipulate him for selfish reasons. Of course, he lacks the brains, heart, and backbone to reason, empathize, and stand up for what's best or right. But Gepetto and the Blue Fairy love him no matter what. Neither is actually his parent, yet they show parental love through every phase of his existence. Gepetto's kindness and sacrifices, and the Blue Fairy's help and forgiveness, are beautiful examples of unconditional love.

Hands-on connections in this guide:  BookBites snack, props that represent this theme (pears, gold pieces, log)
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The Adventures of Pinocchio is chock-full of wonderful topics to explore, too--from Italian culture to animal symbology to forgiveness and fairies and more. Scroll down to see our curated Learning Links for more tangential teaching opportunities, and to see how we brought this book and its ideas to life. 

Learning Links

Explore these links to supplement your reading experience, research points of interest, and prompt tangential learning opportunities.


About the Book & Author

The LitWits Author Chat - video biography of Carlo Collodi:

Carlo Collodi biography (Collodi.com)
Collodi and his story (Collodi.com)
Author biography (Read & Co)

Story Supplements

Setting:


Beyond the Book

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Prop Ideas

When choosing props for our live workshops, we always try to focus on two important categories: props that are unique to the setting, because they help kids understand “what that was like,” and props that are symbolic of themes, because they make big ideas visual and tangible. Both kinds of props generate those wide-eyed, “aha!” moments.You could easily have your kids contribute items to a table over time, as the book is being read. 

Sometimes we create a printable prop; click to see the list for this book.
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Wigs

The wigs (and nicknames) of both carpenters in the first chapter – symbols of inauthenticity

Gold pieces

Five pieces of “gold” representing greed – and Pinocchio’s reward (8x) at the end

Mask

A harlequin mask such as those worn by Pinocchio’s “brothers” – false actors projecting a false self

Wooden puppet foot

... such as you might have between the sofa cushions or in the junk drawer. Just kidding--we found it in an antique store serendipitously, right before our workshop--yet another LitWits miracle. An antique Italian carved foot such as the FOUR Gepetto carved for Pinocchio.

Fake snake

A fake snake symbolizing temptation – which Pinocchio managed to avoid on the road that day.

Log

A log representing Pinocchio’s origins and the potential embedded within.

Pears

A symbol of Gepetto’s sacrifice and Pinocchio’s ingratitude

Pinocchio himself

An antique Pinocchio doll from the village of Collodi in IItaly; a vintage edition of the book

LitWitty Shareables

Great Quotes

“There is always hope for boys with good hearts.  Even if they sometimes act like scamps, there is always hope that they will finally get on the right road.”
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“What matters school? We can go to school to-morrow. Whether we have a lesson more or a lesson less, we shall always remain the same donkeys.”
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“Boys ought to know that a good medicine taken in time may save them from serious trouble…”
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“Lies, my boy, are recognized immediately, because there are two kinds:  there are lies that have short legs and lies that have long noses.  Yours seem to have long noses.”
*
“Keep still, you ugly cricket!” cried Pinocchio.
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Most unfortunately, in the lives of puppets there is always a ‘but’ that spoils everything.
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“There is always hope for boys with good hearts.  Even if they sometimes act like scamps, there is always hope that they will finally get on the right road.”
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“Would it be possible to find a more ungrateful boy, or one with less heart than I have!”
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‘Bear it in mind, simpleton! Boys who refuse to study, and turn their backs upon books, schools, and masters, to pass their time in play and amusements, sooner or later come to a bad end… I know it by experience… and I can tell you. A day will come when you will weep as I am weeping now… but then it will be too late!…’
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Happy teaching,
Becky and Jenny
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Now get ready for a bunch of wide-eyed kids having “aha!” moments . . . and you, grinning ear to ear because your kids are happily engaged with a great book.

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LitWits teaching ideas and materials for The Adventures of Pinocchio  by Carlo Collodi 
Copyright 2015 by LitWits Workshops, LLC.  All Rights Reserved.
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