Why hand puppet is not just entertainment

In addition to being safe, good toys need to match the stage of development and emerging capabilities of young children. Hand puppet is a toy which not only able to cultivate children\'s stage ability, creativity, but also bring joy.

Children are big fans of hand puppets. Playing hand puppets with children to make their character become lively and cheerful. Toddlers love to slide their hands in hand pupils and bring them to life. Gather your puppets and have fun with this theme.

Regional settings: puppet hidden things

To introduce your theme, set up several hand puppets at your daycare center. Inside the hand puppet hidden small balls, statuettes or small cardboard books and other small objects. Let baby and toddler explore hand puppets and discover hidden objects.

Routine and transition: apparatus of clothing

This activity is fun for children who are old enough to use utensils. To make lunchtime fun, slide a little finger puppet at the tip of each kid\'s spoon. You can simply cut it through two simple shapes, sewing or gluing together. Let the children operate the spoon during lunch time.

Hand puppet in the snack time

Choose a colorful hand puppet and slide it over your hand. Use it to serve each kid\'s snack. Kids will love hand-to-hand distribution of cheese and cookies, yogurt or cookies.

Sensory activity (smell): fragrance puppet

Add a few drops of vanilla to your puppet. Gently put the puppet under the nose of each child, let them manipulate the puppet, so that they have a chance to find this sweet smell.

Crafts: Making cardboard puppets

Cut the puppet out of the cardboard for each child. Let babies and toddlers decorate their puppets with crayons, paint or other artwork and handicrafts, depending on their age. Laminate each child\'s puppet with adhesive tape. The whole activity needs supervision.

My first hand puppet

Cut puppet outlines out of felt. You will need two for each child. Be sure to adapt the size of each child\'s puppet to the size of his/her hand. Let babies and toddlers paint their puppet. When they are done, sew both puppet sides together.

Ethical and social activities: establishing contact with young babies

If you have very young children in your group, this activity is good for getting in touch with them. Use hand puppets to explore non-verbal languages. Play hand puppet, coax children, and make it a variety of actions. Let children touch puppets. They will appreciate the soft fur in their hands. Hand puppets are a great gift for new parents as they lay the foundation for many crucial moments.

Puppet guest

Invite an older group or an older brother and sister to play puppets in front of the group. Show them how to use puppets to gently scratch the itch baby. You can even ask older children to attend puppet shows.

Puppet\'s day

Pick a day and invite parents to bring a puppet from home to daycare. This will make several new puppets available for the children in your group. Let them explore and manipulate them as they wish. This is a great way to establish a connection between children\'s home and daycare environments.

Cognitive activity

Hungry puppet

This activity is perfect for working on object permanence with toddlers. Set several plastic fruits and vegetables on the floor. Slide a puppet over your hand and make it “eat” a fruit or vegetable. Afterwards, pretend to search for the missing item and invite children to help you find it. Act as if you are surprised the puppet ate the fruit or vegetable. Invite toddlers to manipulate the puppet and make it “eat” other fruits and vegetables.

Finger or hand puppet

Place a puppet on each child\'s hand and help them understand they have “one puppet” on “one hand”. Repeat the activity using finger puppets and help children realize how “one puppet” goes on “one finger”.

The read corner

Put a few puppets in your reading corner. Children like to read books and flip pages with puppets.

Physical and motor skills

Bag puppet

Slide a puppet on each child\'s feet. Encourage them to move their legs and feet to move the puppet. Change: You can also stick two big eyes on two socks, plus a small bell. Need supervision.

Language activities

Word puppet

This is an original way to show “picture books” to babies and toddlers and to develop their vocabulary. Cascading a few illustrations and pictures. Store in a gift bag. Children use pictures of puppets from the bag and presented to the group.