Puppet crafts and activities are a great way to foster creativity for kids (or the kid-in-you). Many types of puppets can be made using common household items. Once the kids are finished creating their puppets, invite them to put on a show of their own. Later, you can watch movies with puppets streaming on Netflix. Below you will find some of our favorite family-friendly flicks. A big thank you to our friends at Netflix for sponsoring today’s creative play post!
Here are ten of our favorite puppet crafts and activities to inspire lots of imaginative playtime fun:
1. Make sock puppets with socks, felt, fabric glue, pom poms, pipe cleaners, and wiggle eyes.
2. Read a Jim Henson biography. We love the book “Who Was Jim Henson?
3. Draw your own storyboard and write a script!
4. Watch movies together that feature puppets streaming on Netflix. Some of our favorites include:
- The Muppets Take Manhattan (for ages 5-12)
- The Dark Crystal (for ages 8-12)
- Sesame Street Classics (for ages 2 and up)
5. Build a shadow puppet theater and EASY shadow puppets to go along with it.
6. Craft up a marionette puppet from cardboard tubes, paint stirrer sticks, yarn, and card stock paper.
7. Make a caterpillar puppet with construction paper, pom poms, wiggle eyes, and craft sticks.
8. Use googly eye finger puppets like these
9. Craft some silly stick puppets.
10. Build a doorway puppet theater!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Netflix and I am part of the Netflix StreamTeam. Contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting us!
Jim Henson was my uncle. His wife, Jane Henson worked right along with him and was a puppeteer too.
Puppets are such fun, as a teacher I used them a lot. Somehow it is just so enticing for kids to see something come alive in your hands.
You should also check out what Jim Henson’s daughter, Heather Henson is doing with puppetry. Go to:
http://ibexpuppetry.blogspot.com/p/flight-cranes-story.html