Making Puppets

The children can make puppets with any of the following materials: socks, cardboard attached to a tongue depressor, paper sacks (newspaper stuffed), a cork with a hole (finger puppet), empty paper towel rolls, boxes attached to dowels, nylons stretched over bent hangers, flyswatter, etc.

We made paper bag puppets

They work for any age.

These ones were made by a 6 year old, 4 year old and 2 year old

We also made stick puppets.

Card stock seemed to work better. You could use pre-cut shapes or let the kids design their own.

We also made sock puppets. I found a great idea in the book

"The Warlord's Puppeteers" by Virginia Walton Pilegard

You turn a sock inside out and tie a knot on the toe. Then you flip it right side out and put a rubber band around the fabric covered knot. The kids can decorate that as the head. On the sides cut a hole for the thumb and middle finger to act as the puppet's arms. The pointer finger can then control the actions of the puppets head. It was

Puppet Faces

Help the children make an open-sandwich with peanut butter or cream cheese spread on a piece of bread, a bagel or a bun. Provide some foods for them to build their puppet face with (raisins, nuts, grapes, shredded carrots, coconut, etc.).

Puppeteer Field Trip

Find a puppet show to attend or invite a puppeteer to visit the classroom. Look at and discuss the different kinds of puppets they use in the shows. Ask if you can take a tour of the puppets before or after the show.

Puppets Journal Page

Read a book about puppets then hand out a journal sheet with this question on it: "How do puppets work?" Record the children's responses and let them draw a picture to go along with their response.

Marionette Movements

After demonstrating how a marionette moves, have the children pretend that they are marionettes by following the movements of the marionette when you pull on the various string. It may be helpful to give verbal queues such as “I’m pulling on the string attached to the arm”, etc.
It might be helpful to show the kids a clip of a marionette puppet show before doing this activity, like the "Lonely Goatherd" in the movie "Sound of Music".

Puppet Probe

Examine on of the puppets in the classroom together. Count all of the parts of the puppets (eyes, legs, arms, stripes on its clothing, etc.). Discuss how the puppets was made.
We picked out a butterfly puppet to use for this activity. We counted its eyes, antennae, wings, mouth, spots on the wings, stripes on the belly, stripes on the glove.

Tiny Tim Turtle

(Use a turtle puppet or your hands- cup one hand on top of the other hand in a fist with your thumb sticking out like a head)
I had a little Turtle, His name was Tiny Tim. I put him in the bathtub, to see if he could swim. He drank up all the water. He ate up all the soap. Now my little turtle has bubbles in his throat. Bubble, bubble, bubble. Bubble, bubble bubble. Bubble, bubble, bubble. Bubble, bubble, POP (clap)!

Button Exploration

Fill the sensory table with a variety of buttons. The kids can explore the buttons and find different shapes, sizes, colors, patterns, textures, number of button holes, etc.
I have a collection of buttons that my mom gave me. I put them out for the kids to explore. They loved discovering the different designs and textures. They also had a lot of fun trying to find any matches. I had a lot of some kinds of buttons and only one or two of others.

Puppet Classification

Let the children classify a collection of puppets into special categories such as animals, people, insects, imaginary things, etc.
We classified our puppets into people and animals. Because we had so many animal puppets, we also classified the animals into groups of dinosaurs, zoo animals and farm animals.

Puppet Show

Set up a puppet stage in the room and provide a variety of different puppets. The children can work together or individually to play with the puppets and to put on a puppet show for others to watch.

My creative and talented sister made our puppet theater curtains for us. She used a spring rod that adjusts in size to hold them up and then sewed the fabric with an opening to slide on the rod and a hem at the bottom. She used fabric markers to write the words and draw the pictures. It hangs from doorways very easy. It is simple and fun. We enjoy it. Thanks, sister!

Occupational Puppets

Introduce various types of occupational puppets. Let the children describe the different jobs. Let the children take turns acting out the occupations the different puppets represent. We used all of our people puppets for this activity, include the king and jester, etc. I asked "What is the king's job?" and let them have a turn answer and then I took a turn answering too.

Puppet Performance

Have the children pick a favorite story that they want to act out using puppets. Each child can choose their puppet part. As a narrator reads the story, let the children act out the story with puppets. Parents can be invited to see the show or it can be video taped and shared later.

Puppets Lesson Plan

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