You and the kids can create your own puppet theater. All you
need are * 1 table, * 1 table cloth large enough to completely
cover the front and sides of the table, leaving the back exposed
* Stiff white cardboard (or colored paper) * pencils and color
pencils * scissors * glue * plenty of time and creativity
Granted, this puppet theater is nowhere near as impressive as
these puppet
theaters for kids but they are a lot cheaper when you make
them yourself.
Ready?
The puppets for your theater will be finger puppets. These are
the easiest to make. My inventive 6 year old boy ignored my
intended design and made his own instead.
My 6 year old kid thought up this one all by himself. He used
colored paper, wrapped loosely around a finger and taped closed.
He made them loose enough so he could put on or take off the
puppets as he wished. Then he would draw a face on the tip of
the puppet. His elder brother liked that design and helped him
make a variety of such finger puppets with different colors and
different expressions.
The puppets I had originally taught them to make required a lot
more work though. The steps are as follows
1. Decide what characters this puppet show is going to feature.
2. Draw pictures of these characters on the white cardboard.
Each picture has to be big enough to cover 1 finger. 3. Color
the pictures 4. Cut out these pictures. 5. Cut a white strip of
cardboard about half inch thick, 1 and a half inches long.
(adjust the length according to your child's finger width. Make
1 puppet first then you can roughly tell how long the strip
should be. 6. Form a circle with the white strip. 7. Glue this
circle behind the picture so that a finger can go through it to
support the puppet. 8. Let the glue dry completely and you have
your finger puppets.
Once you have enough puppets, you can make the theater.
Drape the table cloth over the table, so that the front and
sides are completely covered, but the back of the table is fully
exposed.
That covered table is the puppet theater.
The children can hide behind the theater, put on the finger
puppets on their fingers, lift their hands over their heads to
perform the puppet show.
Be attentive when your kids perform their puppet show for you.
About Author :
The writer is the webmaster of www.toyskidslove.com
which features the toys that kids really like, some of which are
highly educational.
