One day when my boys were younger I came up with this idea. They were so bored and it was raining buckets outside. On these days I have to come up with something creative for them to do for my own sanity. Living in the Midwest we always have gloves hanging around that are missing their mates. I keep those little stretchy gloves in bulk. I also try to keep my craft bin full of pipe cleaners, pom poms, googly eyes, etc. This is where finger puppets were born. What did I have around the house that we could use to create something fun to play with. This is what I came up with.
Take a pair of stretchy gloves and cut off the fingers. It’s as simple as that. I find the stretchy ones work the best, but feel free to get creative with whatever you have on hand that you don’t mind destroying. Then let the kids go wild with their own imaginations. Have them decorate the fingers in whatever characters they envision with whatever crafting supplies you have on hand. We use a hot glue gun to adhere the decorations to the glove fingers. Use your own discretion as to what type of glue you will use. In my experience hot glue really is the best, so maybe help the little ones out with this step.
Once they are done it is time to put on a puppet show! I encourage my boys to write out a story they have in mind. This is a great way to incorporate some creative writing and thinking into the project. Then they take turns performing their show for the family. I’ve also had them pick a favorite book and create the characters from the book. We’ve used variations of this project with large craft sticks instead of gloves. When we study a Shakespeare story I have them make the characters on the craft sticks and reenact the story we just read. This really helps to commit the play to memory and understand what they have just listened to. This can be done with any book or story you are studying.
It’s time to get creative! Put this idea in your back pocket for the next rain or snow day. I hope you enjoy making puppets and share what you’ve made!
-Nicole