Fun hand puppets

Hand Puppets are a fun and inexpensive way  to expand on the make-believe play that so many children simply love. With a little motivation from you, hand puppets will help your children acquire strong learning abilities and build valuable communication and critical-thinking skills. Hand Puppet performances are also extremely creative and open-minded and can be enjoyable for many adults as well. Allow your child to take the lead in both the creation of the hand puppet and the hand puppet performance and you will be impressed by your child’s creativity and progress. Here is an easy step by step guide to create your own hand puppets at home.

Supplies Needed

• Embroidery Needles
• Ribbons
• Beads
• Cardboard
• Dressmaker Pins
• Embroidery Floss
• Fabric
• Felt
• Fur type Fabric
• Glue
• Sewing Machine
• Needles
• Thread
• Yarn
• Scissors
• Pencils
• Construction paper
• Ruler
• Toy Pieces
• Buttons

Instructions

1. Using a pencil,  draw the puppet outline onto a piece of construction paper or light-weight cardboard.
2. Start by drawing the head and the neck, then draw the arms extending out just below the neck. The arms maybe drawn up or down or any way desired, allow your child to decide, even if anatomically incorrect.
3. However, allow a narrow enough distance between the underarm points of the outline to allow the wearer to insert a thumb into one arm and the pinky finger into the other. Also, make sure the head is large enough so that the wearer’s middle three fingers can comfortably fit into the head of the puppet.
4. Then, draw two straight lines, one on each side, down from the beneath the puppets arms to the desired length. However, the length of the puppet should extend from the wearer’s fingertips to his or her elbow
5. Next, cut out your hand puppet pattern along the outline.
6. Then, place the puppet cutout on the wrong side of the chosen fabric, and secure it into place using pins. Using the outline as a guide, cut the fabric into the same shape as the puppet. Unsecure the outline and repeat on another piece of fabric. These will be the front and back of the puppet.
7. Using a variety of household items such as buttons, beads, yarn, cutouts from colored construction paper or even toy pieces, allow your child to create the puppets features and decorate the puppet.
8. Once finished, position the two fabric pieces so that the correct sides are together and all the edges are lined up evenly.
9. Then, sew or stitch the two fabric pieces together along all the edges except the bottom. Trim any excess fabric along the edges as necessary.
10. Turn the bottom edge under as about half an inch and stitch into place to create a clean and comfortable edge.
11. Allow you child to direct and star in their own hand puppet production!

Tagged as: arts and craft, children activities, Indoor Activities