Lions and Tigers and Sharks…..Oh My!

Recently, our classes have been invaded by fish, dolphins, and sharks.  Sea life puppets that is!  Puppet play is one of the best ways to help your child learn to express and vocalize their feelings.  Even shy children can use a puppet to make communication easier.

Puppets are also great for helping a child through a change – a move, a new sibling, or loss of a loved one.  A child may answer a question with more honesty while talking to a puppet, rather than to the adult who is holding the puppet. Puppets allow the freedom to express, process and work through fears. When played with, puppets come to life!

Babies love the textures and visual stimulation that puppets offer. Try a “peek-a-boo” puppet (one that pops out of a hidden place like in this blog’s picture) for a fun game sure to bring out smiles and giggles. Puppets encourage interaction between parent and child, which is a prerequisite for optimal learning. Finger puppets provide wonderful distraction for fussy babies and are small enough to carry while traveling.

For toddlers, puppets offer a chance to practice fine motor skills by opening and closing the puppet’s mouth with a hand, or by moving a finger to make a little puppet move.  Singing songs together with your new puppet friend is a wonderful way to learn new songs and nursery rhymes.

Preschoolers and early elementary students love knock-knock and other jokes. Adding puppets to the jokes make them even more hilarious! (Even the ones that don’t make any sense to us grownups.) As storytelling and imaginary play begins to develop, puppets make great props, and help provide story “material”.

Puppets offer a way to practice conversational and social skills.  Your puppet talks and then it’s my puppet’s turn.  And finally, children of all ages love to be serenaded by a puppet. 

Here’s one of my favorite grown-up puppet shows, called Potter Puppet Pals and the Mysterious Ticking Noise.

And for your children, don’t forget the classic Kermit the Frog News Flash on Sesame Street! Here’s a whole bunch (cause I couldn’t choose just one).

-posted by Miss Beth who loves all puppets, especially the manta ray living at the studio!