Marina's Marine Adventure is a puppet show and picture book about turning a rained-out day into a wonderful new adventure, setting sail to meet a multitude of sea creatures along the way.
This literary and performing arts program is available to libraries, theatres and schools across South-East Queensland, with Australian touring subject to funding. It includes puppetry performance and puppet-making extensions and is aligned with the Australian School Curriculum for Prep to Year 2 (F-2).
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Marina’s Marine Adventure Puppet Show & Children’s Book
Rain or shine, adventure awaits! Marina’s Marine Adventure is a Queensland-made puppet show and picture book from Larrikin Puppets.
When Marina’s day at the beach takes a turn and rain ruins her plans, her big brother Troggg has a clever idea — instead of letting the disappointment sink her spirits, the two of them set sail on an imaginative marine adventure with Freerange the Chicken as their trusty navigator.
Along the way they meet a curious stingray, an adorable dugong, colourful fish, a dancing dolphin, and even a few sharks.
It’s a warm, beautifully illustrated, early reader picture book celebrating sibling bonds, the magic of shared imagination, and the joy of turning an unexpected setback into a wonderful new adventure.
Written by author and puppeteer Elissa Jenkins and illustrated by Jannata Dea, the story also gently explores how disappointment and “missing out” can still lead to joy, creativity, and connection … if you’re open to it.
Larrikin Puppets performs Marina’s Marine Adventure for libraries, theatres, and schools across South-East Queensland, with Australian touring subject to funding.
Every visit is a fully self-contained live puppet show, performed by two puppeteers including Elissa Jenkins, the book’s author. Libraries and theatres can add a book sale, signing and meet-and-greet with the cast; schools can build the visit into a full unit with the book, a script, and puppet-making craft kits.
Read more about the two programs below or make a booking enquiry now.
Libraries and Theatre Program
Marina’s Marine Adventure: Live Puppet Show
A colourful, all-singing, all-dancing adventure at sea, Marina’s Marine Adventure is a 45-minute live puppet show for ages 7 and under, and their families.
Little blue monster Marina loves the sea. She and her brother Troggg set sail in their boat, meeting a seemingly endless cast of ocean creature puppets along the way, from Donny the Dancing Dolphin to Stingray Cyrus. It’s a lively cavalcade of nautical delight, packed with colourful characters, music, comedy and audience participation.
One of the show’s standout moments is a spectacular walk-around octopus puppet, with all eight tentacles puppeteered by eight children selected from the audience. It’s a wonderfully chaotic and highly visual part of the performance that audiences love to photograph and talk about.
The performance is followed by a book sale, author signing and meet-and-greet with Elissa and the puppet characters. Elissa is the author of Marina’s Marine Adventure and is there in person to not only perform the show, but also sign books and meet the children afterwards.
Marina’s Marine Adventure connects live performance, playful puppetry, children’s literature and author engagement in one experience. Audiences see the book brought to life on stage, meet its author, and have the opportunity to take the story home with them.
It’s a natural fit with library after-school, weekend and school-holiday programming, as well as theatre school-group visits and family seasons.
Extension: Hands-On Puppetry Performance Workshop
Extend the experience to add a one-hour interactive puppetry workshop straight after the show, suitable for children aged 5 and up.
Larrikin Puppets brings a special Marina’s Marine Adventure Kids’ Edition Puppet Show for the workshop: ready-to-perform sock puppets, finger puppets and paper stick puppets, along with a couple of child-sized puppet theatres and simple scripts. Children choose their puppets, take a turn behind a puppet theatre and perform their own version of Marina’s Marine Adventure.
It’s a chance for children to get off the audience side and into the action, giving them a hands-on introduction to puppetry, storytelling and performance while extending the fun of the show.
Schools Program
Marina’s Marine Adventure: Live Puppet Show
Bring Marina’s Marine Adventure to your school for a 45-minute live puppet show performed by Elissa Jenkins and Brett Hansen, suitable for Prep to Year 2.
A colourful, all-singing, all-dancing adventure at sea, the show brings Marina’s early reader picture book to life with a seemingly endless cast of ocean creature puppets, music, comedy and audience participation. Students join Marina and Troggg as they set sail and meet dolphins, stingrays, dugongs, fish, sharks and more along the way.
And then there’s the octopus! A spectacular walk-around octopus takes eight students from the audience to puppeteer its eight tentacles. Working together, the children bring the enormous puppet to life, creating a memorable theatrical moment that celebrates cooperation and what can happen when everyone plays their part.
The performance can stand alone as a school incursion, or schools can extend the experience with resources that take students from reading and watching the story to making and performing their own version of the show.
Extension: Book, Script & Puppet-Making Kit
Turn the performance into a hands-on classroom experience with a package of resources designed for students to continue exploring Marina’s Marine Adventure before and/or after the show.
The book: The teacher can purchase and read Marina’s Marine Adventure aloud before the live performance, or students can each purchase their own copy to read before the show. This builds anticipation for seeing the story brought to life and gives students an opportunity to engage with the characters, setting and events before exploring and retelling the story themselves.
The performance script: A student-friendly adaptation of the puppet show gives classes a ready-to-use script they can rehearse and perform themselves.
Puppet-making craft kits: Students can make their own version of Marina’s Marine Adventure puppet characters and create a puppet theatre using craft kits available to purchase from Larrikin Puppets. These classroom kits include:
- 1 x Troggg sock puppet craft kit and 1 x Marina sock puppet craft kit
- 1 x Freerange The Chicken finger puppet craft kit
- Printable paper sea creature templates for making stick puppets
- A simple DIY puppet theatre how-to guide
Together, the resources create a natural progression from reading the book, to watching the performance, to making puppets, rehearsing and performing. Students can then perform their own version of Marina’s Marine Adventure for their classmates, families or wider school community.
This makes the live performance from Larrikin Puppets more than a one-off incursion. It becomes a starting point for ongoing classroom activities in reading, drama, creative expression and making.
How Marina’s Marine Adventure Connects to the Australian Curriculum
Marina’s Marine Adventure is designed to slot naturally into Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 classrooms, with strong curriculum connections across English, Drama, and Design & Technologies. The live performance provides the shared experience, while the book, script and puppet-making activities give teachers practical ways to extend that experience in the classroom.
English
Students can first encounter Marina’s Marine Adventure through the book then see the story brought to life as a live puppet performance. Returning to the story after the puppet show through the script and classroom activities provides a natural pathway from reading and experiencing a story to retelling, adapting and creating one themselves.
The Australian Curriculum asks Foundation students to retell and innovate on familiar literary texts through play, performance, images or writing (AC9EFLE05). In Year 1, students retell or innovate on a familiar story using its ideas, characters, vocabulary and structure through role play, writing, drawing or digital applications (AC9E1LE05). By Year 2, students create or innovate on familiar literary texts by experimenting with characters, settings, events and language features through drawing, writing, performance and digital applications (AC9E2LE05).
After seeing the story performed, students can revisit the book, explore its characters and events, use the script to retell or adapt scenes, and perform their own version using the puppets they have made. This gives teachers a practical way to connect literature, oral language, comprehension, sequencing, imaginative play and performance.
Drama
The live performance and extension program introduces students to drama as something they can watch and experience … then make themselves.
The Australian Curriculum’s Foundation to Year 2 Drama curriculum focuses on using imagination and the elements of drama in dramatic play, creating fictional situations, and sharing drama with others. Students explore how drama communicates ideas and meanings for people and communities, and in Years 1–2 explore how and why people experience drama.
Marina’s Marine Adventure provides a real-world example of drama being created and shared with an audience. The extension activities then allow students to step into that process themselves: taking on characters, using puppets as performance tools, exploring fictional situations, working with a script and sharing their own dramatic scenes with classmates.
The octopus activity provides a particularly strong example of collaborative drama. Eight students work together to operate one enormous puppet, coordinating their movements to bring the creature to life. The theatrical experience becomes a practical exercise in listening, cooperation, timing, role and shared performance.
Design & Technologies
The puppet-making extension provides a hands-on Design & Technologies experience that connects directly with the current Foundation to Year 2 curriculum.
In Foundation, AC9TDEFP01 asks students to generate, communicate and evaluate design ideas and use materials, equipment and steps to safely make a solution for a purpose. In Years 1–2, students generate and communicate design ideas through describing, drawing or modelling (AC9TDE2P01), safely use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to make designed solutions (AC9TDE2P02), and sequence steps for making designed solutions (AC9TDE2P04).
Students can apply these processes playfully when they create their own sea-creature puppets. They work with provided templates and materials, make choices about how their puppet will look, safely cut and assemble its components, attach the paddle-pop stick and then use the finished puppet for its intended purpose: storytelling and performance.
The puppet therefore becomes more than a craft activity. It is a designed object created for a purpose, giving students an age-appropriate opportunity to design, make, use and evaluate a solution.
One experience, multiple curriculum connections
A Marina’s Marine Adventure incursion can therefore provide a shared starting point for learning across several areas of the curriculum. Students first encounter Marina’s Marine Adventure through the book, then experience the story brought to life as a live literary and dramatic work. Using the script, their own voices, bodies, imagination and handmade puppets, they can then retell, adapt and perform the story themselves.
For teachers, the program offers a practical performance-to-classroom pathway: explore the text, experience the live performance, make the puppets, and create and perform a new live show version of the story.
Cost
Our pricing is based on the option you choose, audience size, and location. For clear pricing and a tailored quote, please complete our Booking Enquiry Form and we’ll get back to you with availability and costs.
Working With Children Check (Blue Card) & Insurance
Brett’s Working with Children Blue Card number is 1161011/4, and Elissa’s is 690261/4. We have public liability insurance through Duck For Cover Entertainers Insurance.
