Image Source: Canva
Creativity takes center stage when preschoolers begin playing with puppets. Storytelling also provides a safe space for expressing strong feelings. Another bonus is the expanding vocabulary your child will rapidly acquire when presenting various puppet plays. We will go over the many ways to build puppets for your child and set the atmosphere for storytelling!
If you don’t have a whole corner to display puppets, that’s fine. How about a couple of totes? One tote can store materials such as paper, markers, yarn, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, ribbon, felt, fabric scraps, feathers, and pom-poms. The other tote can safely store all of the finished puppets. Now, it’s time to explore all the various puppets you and your preschoolers can create for dramatic play!
Dragon Puppet
Supplies: colored paper, scissors, markers or crayons, glue, tape, Popsicle sticks or cardboard
- Draw the head and tail of the dragon on colored paper.
- Cut out the head and tail.
- Cut another piece of colored paper in half length-wise.
- Fold the two pieces, using accordion folds. Tape them together to make one long piece.
- Glue or tape one end of the folded paper to the dragon head and one end to the dragon tail.
- Glue or tape a Popsicle stick to the dragon head and another one to the dragon tail.
- Decorate with extras to make the puppet colorful.
Felt Puppet
Supplies: felt in multiple colors (at least two pieces), scissors, markers, glue, extras
- Trace the desired puppet shape on two pieces of felt and cut them out.
- Put the shapes together and glue at the edges. Leave an opening for the hand.
- Decorate with felt scraps and use extras to add hair, clothes, eyes, and other features.
Finger Puppet
Supplies: old glove, scissors, glue, markers, extras
- Cut the fingers off the glove where they meet the hand. Put the hand part in the scrap box.
- Decorate each finger with markers or extras.
Jointed Puppet
Supplies: cardboard, glue, scissors, markers or crayons, metal paper fasteners, Popsicle sticks
- Cut out the desired puppet shape from the cardboard. Decorate it.
- Cut off the arms and legs.
- Poke holes in the body, near where the arms and legs were joined to it. Poke holes in the arms and legs, near the cut ends.
- Reattach the arms and legs, lining up the holes and securing the limbs with metal paper fasteners.
- Glue the finished puppet onto a Popsicle stick or piece of cardboard.
Unstuffed Animal Puppet
Supplies: old stuffed animal, glue or sewing needle and thread
- Purchase stuffed animals from garage sales or thrift stores.
- Determine where the puppeteer’s hand will go, and cut an opening in the back of the stuffed animal.
- Remove most of the stuffing, but leave the head filled.
- Finish the edges of the hand hole with hand-sewn stitching, glue, or wide tape.
Image Source: Canva
Supplies: sock, marker, scissors, cardboard, fabric, glue, extras
- Put your hand in the sock, with fingers in the toe area and wrist in the heel.
- Form a mouth in the sock using your thumb and fingers. With a marker, draw a straight line where the mouth is.
- Remove the sock from hand and cut along the line.
- Cut out two ovals, three inches wide and five inches long. (One from the cardboard and one from the fabric.)
- Glue the fabric oval onto the cardboard oval.
- Fold the oval in half, fabric side in.
- Glue the oval in the mouth hole of the sock.
- Decorate the sock puppet.
Image Source: Canva
Paper Bag Puppet
Supplies: paper bag, pencil/pen/marker, glue, extras
- Lay a paper bag flat, with the bottom folded face-up at the top. The bottom flap will be the face.
- Add eyes, a nose, and a mouth. The upper lip of the mouth will be on the edge of the bottom flap with the lower lip on the corresponding area of the main bag.
- Stick your hand in the paper bag and use your fingers and thumb to move the puppet’s mouth.
Purchased puppets may be used for a different style of puppet play. For example:
- Oversized puppets can sit on a leader’s lap and engage the children in conversation.
- Big-mouthed puppets inspire talkative characters who engage with each other and the audience.
- Furry animal puppets are realistic and comforting like familiar stuffed animals.
- Molded plastic and rubber hand puppets are easy to wash and tend to be long lasting.
- Family puppets come in diverse sets to mix and match depending on children’s cultures and the composition of their families.
To set the atmosphere as children make their puppets, post photos or posters of puppets from various cultures on the wall. Check with your local library for books to display about puppets or storybooks to inspire play writing. Neighbors and family members may be able to donate brown paper lunch bags, fabric scraps, old gloves and socks, or unusual doll-sized hats, purses, scarves, crowns, wands, etc. After finishing their puppets, preschoolers can act out a familiar story or dictate an original script for their puppet show.
Whether using purchased or self-made puppets, preschoolers may want to perform with their puppets for an audience. A simple stage may be arranged by using a low bookcase for performers to kneel behind. Designate someone to introduce the puppets and their handlers before or after the performance. Encourage children to explain the reasons they conducted their puppet show.
Children may want to make tickets and invitations for parents, grandparents, or siblings. This may involve some counting and pre-planning. This can also be the perfect opportunity to talk about hospitality. It would lead to practicing ahead of time the use of good manners to welcome guests and guide them to their chairs/floor space. Listening to children as they perform with their puppets is guaranteed to entertain, but you will also be likely to gather several new ideas for other puppet performances to capitalize on the children’s interests.
Source: Expressing Creativity in Preschool from the editors of Teaching Young Children. 2015. National Association for the Education of Young Children.
References:
Puppet Mania! The world’s most incredible puppet making book ever! by John Kennedy. 2004. North Light Books. Plenty of step-by-step illustrations for making sock puppets and furry animal puppets with lots of personality!
Easy-to-Make Puppets and How to Use Them by Fran Rottman. 1995. Gospel Light.
Reproducible patterns and guidelines for making and using puppets with children ages 2-12.
Many variations on finger puppets, hand puppets, glove puppets, and paper bag puppets. Short seasonal rhymes for three and four-year-olds to easily memorize. Some scripts for puppet plays suitable for older children.
LADONNA WERTH, EXTENSION EDUCATOR | EARLY CHILDHOOD EXTENSION
Peer Reviewed by Lynn DeVries, Lisa Poppe, and Jackie Steffen, Extension Educators, Early Childhood Extension
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