Make Puppets
Kids love creating puppets and imbuing them with voices, personalities, and actions. Some, like Jim Henson, went on to make puppetry their lifework.
Encourage your children to create their own puppets and then put on a puppet show. Hand puppets can be constructed out of socks or paper bags. Use markers to make the face or glue on facial features. Finger puppets can be created out of the fingers of old gloves.
HighlightsKids.com provides directions for making a hand puppet, and a puppet from a pizza box!
Marionettes dance and sing when you pull on their strings. In the January 2008 issue of Highlights ® (p. 21), you'll learn how to make a dancing arctic-fox marionette.
On with the Show
You could help kids create a stage by painting cardboard boxes. In a crunch, crouching behind the couch works, too. The magic of puppetry is in bringing inanimate objects to life—with a little art and imagination.
For inspiration, take a look at this Hidden Pictures ® of kids performing with their puppets. Can you find the hidden items?