Playful Puppetry
Recently in The Studio for a Special Sunday activity, the room was abuzz with drama and creativity as guests hammed it up with their handmade marker cap finger puppets and mini puppet theatres. Studio staff made a few funny characters to get guests inspired!
Inspired by a blog post on Pinterest, we used marker and bottle caps as puppet bodies and added fun details with stickers, masking tape, feathers, wire, beads, ribbon, yarn, muffin papers, straws, wine corks, wooden spools, and fabric scraps.
The Studio collects caps from empty glue sticks, worn out markers and empty soda and juice bottles, so we had quite an array of colors and sizes to choose from.
It was surprising to see how elaborate the kids’ ideas became and we noticed that they preferred to spend a majority of their time adding details to one puppet rather than making multiple, simpler puppets.
It’s challenging to draw with markers on a puppet face directly onto a smooth marker cap’s exterior, so small round stickers or pieces of masking tape provide a surface for facial details, allowing your puppet’s personality to shine!
We overheard fun conversations while children constructed their puppets; they were especially excited about their puppet’s names, where they were from and all the special details they planned to add.
In addition to the puppet making supplies, a fun way to take the idea a bit farther was for each child to decorate a mini foam core “puppet theatre” for tiny plays with their puppets at home.
The mini theatres are a piece of foam core (you could also use card board or mat board) with a rectangle cut from the center. 2 notches were cut at the bottom so a strip of cardboard could be inserted at the bottom to make the theatre stand on a table, or easier to hold.
Some older children focused heavily on a cohesive design for their puppet and matched their theatre to the characterization of their puppet.
Other guests used The Studio’s larger puppet theatres to act out scenes with their families.
It was fun to see how delighted the children were making their puppets and performing with them.
Overall, the day was a big success, and small frustrations were overcome as we kept in mind that All’s Well That Ends Well, even in the mini puppet world!
Thanks to our intern, Rochelle Malter and work study student, Emma Rodrigue for helping to setup and run this Special Sunday activity; for Rochelle’s help with developing the copy for this post; and work study student Katie Welles for helping to edit the photos you see here!
