When young children see puppets, they usually react in 2 ways. One is that they’d be really thrilled and excited, and the other is that they’d be scared out of their wits and start crying at the top of their lungs. I usually prefer them giving me the first reaction, but kids will be kids.
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When the year started, I only had around 1 or 2 kids out of who were afraid of puppets. At first, I was unsure if I should tell them that there’s someone holding it because I didn’t want the feeling of “magic” to go away. But then again, when a toddler starts climbing up on your shoulders and screams loudly, I think it’s time to explain! (Whether or not they understand it) Well, another way to help these kids get over their fears is by letting them get used to it. Small steps. So why not help them understand how a puppet works by letting them make their own?
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During Family Involvement Week, my co-teacher, who also happens to be a dad agreed to do a short activity with the kids. After telling a made up story about animals, we let the kids choose amongst three animals for them to make into puppets. It’s really easy to do and it actually helped some of my kids understand that a puppet isn’t real and scary after all.
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What you will need
- Brown Paper Bag
- Pre-cut patterns
- Pre-cut eyes
- Glue
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Teacher’s Turn:
1. Draw the pattern or find one online. My partner was the one who found ours, so I’m not sure which site she saw it on. I think it’s DLTK.
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2. Cut out the pattern
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3. For the eyes: You can use googly eyes, but in our case, we accidentally came across a picture of eyes on the internet. They eyes were all unique and showed different expressions. So we decided to use this.
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Kid’s Turn
1. Start sticking the different parts of the puppet like the ears, nose, mouth, etc.
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2. Wait for it to dry
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3. Get ready for some role playing with your adorable hand puppets
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