Stories with puppets

Puppets are great for children to play with. Parents can join in and 'talk' through puppets.

Most children love puppets and the pretending involved in playing with them. When we use puppets to tell a story or read a book, we capture children’s attention and they listen carefully. You can use a puppet to have a conversation with a child. A soft toy or a doll might also ‘talk’ and be talked to. With imagination, anything is possible.

Puppets don’t need to be complicated, expensive or flash. They can be made at home using paper bags, socks, pegs and material. They can be hand or finger puppets, or puppets on a stick or on string.

Ask the whānau:

What has been your experience with puppets?
What memories do you have of playing with puppets as a child?
Can you imagine what it’s like to talk through a puppet?
Would you like to have a go?

Suggest singing a song or saying a rhyme that parents know if they feel awkward. Encourage their child to sing along with the puppet.

Having fun with puppets

These are some suggestions for whānau to enjoy puppets.

Try telling a story. Get the puppet to use some funny voices.
Re-enact an everyday activity that’s familiar to everyone. Maybe a puppet won’t know how to do some basic things, which will give the child a chance to teach the puppet.
Maybe a puppet is learning to use the toilet, especially if that’s what’s going on right now for the child.
Parents and their child can have a puppet each and sing together or have conversations with each other.

The important thing is to make it playful and have fun.

Helpful resources for whānau

Storytelling and oral language

Ministry of Education

Play ideas from the Ministry of Education.

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How to make sock puppets

How to make sock puppets (transcript)

David Watts:

Hi there, sorry, you just caught me reading a book about space. Well, since you’re here maybe we can talk about sock puppets.

[Text on screen: Sock Puppets!]

David Watts:

I got given some sock puppet stuff for my birthday. I know you usually use old socks but this was some kind of kit that someone made. So, I thought I’d make them and show you how to do it. Not that you really need teaching, I’m sure.

Anyway, this is one I’ve already made. This is some kind of dinosaur. It’s got little arms, it’s got a tail, some kind of spikey head thing, a couple of googly eyes, a tongue and a little nose. So, I’ll make another one so that you can see how to do it.

This is what you’re gonna to need, you need a sock. These are a bit small, you could do with something a bit bigger. You’re gonna need a pair of scissors, some kind of glue. Probably need a pen, and you’ll need some felt or something to cover the outside, you can use paper or cardboard if you want. And I’ve also got some, sort of little fluffy balls, and a few googly eyes.

Now, the first step when you’ve got your sock is to put it on your hand to see how it’s gonna fit. So, generally, where the heel is, just there, that’s where your finger’s gonna be and then there’s your sock puppet shape. So your eyes are probably gonna go around here so you’re gonna wanna mark, so if we just draw a little black mark on there, so that’s where your eyes are gonna be, and then you’ve got the mouth here so it’s probably a good idea just to mark on it a little bit. It’s not really obvious but you’ll be able to see it when you lay the flock out… lay the flock… when you lay the sock out flat. And then everything else will just be down this bit here, and here as well.

So, we’ll take the sock off now. Right, now you get to decide which colours you’re gonna go for. I think yellow will look pretty good on this one. Maybe, actually, we’ll go for blue.

Now for a tail, like this one here, there’s just a triangle bit there and then some spikey bits. So, what we’re gonna do is get a ruler, you need to measure that spikey bit. So, get a pen, and draw a diagonal line down the felt there for the spikey bit. And next we need the tail as well. I’ll draw another diagonal line down here, so not wasting too much of the felt. Now, we’ll just cut that out.

[Silence]

David Watts:

Right, that’ll do, so you got your spikes, you got your tail and just glue it on there with the wet glue here. Just put that aside.

Right, now let’s make some arms and I’ll just draw those on here.

[Silence]

David Watts:

And obviously you’re not gonna play with these, I mean, I’m not gonna play with these. I’ve got a friend, she’s pregnant at the moment so she’ll be having a child soon and it’s kind of a little toy for her I guess and she’ll just be able to scare the child with it. I’m not sure a dinosaur’s the best thing for a newborn but we’re going for that anyway, could have done a dog or a duck or a… well, obviously a snake’s probably the easiest thing to go for.

Right, so there’s my arms. Not perfect but they’ll be fine. Now we need a little tongue. So a little bit of felt, let’s cut off a tongue. Doesn’t have to be perfect so that’s the tongue done. And our little sock there. This little blue bit will go down the back, we’ve got the tail. A couple of arms either side. The tongue will be under here. A couple of googly eyes. We’ll need a nose, and that’s pretty much it.

I’ll stick those all on and then I’ll show you when it’s done.

[Silence]

David Watts:

The glue’s still not completely dry but we can put it on and figure out whether it’s right or not. There’s not much you can do now actually since I’ve glued it but we can certainly put it on to see what it looks like. The tail’s coming off a bit there.

So, there we go. There’s Mr. Sock Puppet, or Tyrannosaurus Rex.

[Tyrannosaurus Rex noise]

[Sock puppet pretending to eat the plant]

[Tyrannosaurus Rex noise]

Close transcript

How to make sock puppets
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How to make a puppet

How to make a puppet (transcript)

[Music]

[Graphics: 21lifeflux logo]

Mike:

Hi everyone! My name is Mike, and today I’m gonna show you the quick and dirty way to make a puppet.

For this project, you’re gonna need craft foam, card board, fabric, regular padding foam, doodads, bells & whistles, elastic, scissors, hot glue, and a little imagination. If you didn’t catch that, that list is right here and down in my pants:

[Text on screen: Craft foam, Cardboard, Fabric, 1” Thick foam. Doodads, Bells & whistles, Elastic, Scissors, Hot glue, Imagination]

Mike:

The craft foam colours you’re gonna need are at least black and white.

Ok. For today’s build, I’m gonna be making everything with a hot glue gun because I know that some of you are not as blessed as I am to have an archaic sewing machine just sitting on their craft table.

For this tutorial, we’re gonna start with the design phase. After we take a picture of what’s already on the whiteboard and erase it. We’re going to start with a basic design of what you’re gonna be cutting out of your fabric. In this case, it’s gonna basically look like the head and shoulders of a gelatinous blob.

We have some chalk here that helps us basically come up with an outline of what we’re gonna be doing. After you’re done drawing, take out your super super sharp scissors and cut the line that you just drew. Remember to cut out two of everything. That way, whatever you make has a front and a back.

Now, flip everything inside out. Glue the front and back together along the sides, and then flip it back outside out.

Now take your cardboard and cut an oval. Fold that oval in half. What do you have? You have a mouth. But it still looks like a piece of cardboard. So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna do is we’re gonna take out that craft foam and we’re gonna hot glue it to the inside of the mouth.

On the backside of the cardboard, you wanna take out your pieces of elastic. Hot glue one end, Stretch it a little, and hot glue the other, like so. What this will do is give you a finger hold inside of the puppet.

Now draw and cut a line where your mouth is going to be placed on your puppet. Find the centre point of that line and the centre point on your mouth and line them up.Put the mouth inside the puppet and hot glue around the edge and fold the fabric in over like so.

Now that the mouth is in place, take your piece of 1” craft foam and jam it in its head. Make sure to use it to fill out every crevice and flat parts of the face. And voila! Your puppet is 50% done.

Now all you have to do is add extras onto it. In my case, I decided to add eyes and hair. The eyes are made out of craft foam and the hair is made out of Christmas trimmings.

And there you have it! Your own new pirate puppet friend.

Did I make you a pirate?

[Music]

Mike:

And don’t make this as the only thing that you can do with your puppets. This is just a base idea. There are a bajillion thousand things you can do with this. So experiment with different ways to cut the fabric, or different ways to place the mouth, or different ideas for hairstyles. It’s all up to you; it’s your imagination not no one else’s.

Hope you found this tutorial entertaining and exciting. And hope to see you next week. Bye!

Close transcript

How to make a puppet
This is a great video for people starting out on the puppet making road of awesome or if you just want to fool around with puppet making.

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Ka taea e au te mātakitaki – I can watch

So much of my early learning comes from what I see.
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Stories with puppets

Having fun with puppets

Helpful resources for whānau

Storytelling and oral language

How to make sock puppets

How to make a puppet

Ka taea e au te mātakitaki – I can watch

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