HELPING CHILDREN TO BRANCH OUT
TIERNEY USES PUPPETS TO TALK TO KIDS

Author: By Cate Coulacos Prato, Globe
Correspondent Date: 04/29/2001
Page: 12 Section: Globe West

Some people talk to trees. John Tierney impersonates them.

The educator and puppeteer finds that doing his impression of a willow, dogwood, pine, or oak is a great way to teach 4 to 8 year-olds about nature.

But his most persuasive teaching tool is Burt the Raccoon, a puppet who emerges from a tree trunk braced on Tierney's arm.

"Puppets are a really great, non-threatening way to teach kids," says Tierney. With the motto, "Have tree, will travel," he tours with Burt all over New England and as far away as Nevada, Hawaii, and Sweden to do his 40-minute show at nature centers, schools, and birthday parties.

On April 21, he greeted guests and performed at the Earth Day celebration at Garden in the Woods in Framingham.

New England Wildflower Society spokeswoman Barbara Pryor says Tierney's act is so popular, "People call us and ask, `When is Burt going to be there again?' "

"He's particularly good at drawing out children who are shy," says Pryor. "Burt squeaks at the kids, and John interprets for him, speaking off the cuff and reacting to what the children do and say. When a shy child talks back to [Burt], the parents just beam."

A former special education teacher with a doctorate in special education, Tierney discovered his puppeteer skills when he went back to school at UMass-Amherst 15 years ago. During an internship at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, he was casting about for a project for his creativity class and spied a puppet sticking out a box like a tree trunk. So he fashioned a tree trunk to fit over his arm and maneuvered a raccoon puppet through a hole in the trunk. The children went wild.

Tierney also incorporates storytelling and sign language into his act. For example, he explains the food chain by relating the tale "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly," while playing the characters in the story, including the fly, spider, bird, cat, dog, cow, and horse.

Wearing his trademark plaid shirt and corduroys, Tierney teaches children about trees and conservation with no props except his body. He begins with a willow, drooping his torso down low and dangling his arms and fingers. Then he prompts the children with clues: "I have yellow leaves, long branches, and I grow near water," spelling out "yellow" in sign language.

For the dogwood, he gives the clues first: "I'm an understory [low] tree with beautifully shaped flowers." Then he starts scratching his "fleas" and signs the word "dog." When the children get the answer, he explains that people used to apply ground-up dogwood bark on their dogs as a flea repellent. Hence the name "dogwood."

Tierney also impersonates maple, fruit, pine, and oak trees, adopting a strongman pose to illustrate the latter. But no matter how simple or elaborate his tree impressions, Tierney is well aware that Burt the Raccoon is the star of his show.

"Kids just love puppets," he says.