‘Play with Me’ Puppet Craft

I am so excited to be joining the Enchanted Homeschooling Mom and many other wonderful bloggers in the 2014-2015 Poppins Book Nook! The Poppins Book Nook is a monthly themed virtual book club for kids ages preschool and up. Each month participants will read a book based on that month’s theme and share crafts and activities that go along with the book on the last Monday of every month. It’s a great way to learn about different topics, build literacy skills and have some fun!

The theme for June is ‘The Great Outdoors’. It was a little tricky to choose a book for this theme because so many books could fit into this topic, but when I first read ‘Play with Me’ by Marie Hall Ets I knew we had a winner! ‘Play with Me’ is a sweet little book about a little girl who goes to play in the meadow and desperately wants to play with all the animals she sees but they keep running away from her. It isn’t until she finally gives up and sits down that the animals come back out and sit with her.

This is a great book to read to young children when learning to listen and about nature. One of the things we have encouraged Caden to do since reading this book is to be quiet when going on a nature walk and to be still when observing nature. We tell him that he will see a lot more bugs and animals if he is still and quiet.

We did a couple of activities to go along with this book, but I am going to share with you our simple puppet craft. Caden has been really interested in puppets lately, ever since seeing a puppet theater and lots of puppets at our new library.

When I say this is a simple craft, I mean it is really simple! Only a handful of supplies:

• card stock (resume paper works too 😉 )
• paint & paintbrushes
• craft sticks
• scissors
• glue
• tape (optional)
• googly eyes (optional)
• red pipe cleaner (optional)

To create these puppets, I first printed out the templates from LearnCreateLove, except for the Chipmunk.

• Grasshopper
• Frog
• Turtle
• Snake
• Blue Jay
• Deer
• Chipmunk

Then we got to work painting them! Since there are so many animal characters in this book, I helped Caden by painting some of the puppets myself. It was fun to get to do some crafting of my own while he did his. After we finished painting, we left them on the table to dry. Once they were completely dry I cut them out and glued them together. Caden didn’t help me with this part because we wanted to be able to play with these puppets and his cutting and gluing skills aren’t at that level yet. But Caden was able to help glue on the googly eyes and tape the craft sticks to the back to create the puppets.

When all the puppets were finished I set up a simple puppet theater using two tension curtain rods and some extra window valances we had. It set it up in our little hallway entrance to our play area in the living room, and Caden attempted to put on a show! The only issue was Caden didn’t understand how to put on a puppet show and he kept pulling the curtains down.

Oh well! It was cute while it lasted! Hopefully your preschooler will have a great time with this simple activity!

Poppins Book Nook Great Outdoors Bundle Giveaway! Every month the Poppins Book Nook group will be offering readers a chance to win a brand new storybook or product that ties in with our theme for the month. This month one lucky entrant will win a copy of the classic storybook Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping as no one brings that certain flair and fun to the great outdoors like Amelia Bedelia. The winner will also win an Uncle Milton Nat Geo Starry Night Lantern so whether you live in the countryside or in the city your child can experience some of the great outdoors while reading your storybook.

Entrants must be 18 years or older and reside in a country that receives U.S. Postal mail. This giveaway is brought to you by the company Enchanted Homeschooling Mom who is owner and founder of the Poppins Book Nook. By entering this giveaway you are also acknowledging that you have read and agree to all of the Rafflecopter terms & conditions as well as Enchanted Homeschooling Mom’s disclosures found here.  Just enter the Rafflecopter below to win:
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Clip Art by Melon Headz

 

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