Popsicle Stick Puppets

Looking for the perfect rainy day activity to keep your kids busy? Popsicle stick puppets are easy-to-make and don’t require a ton of materials. If you have popsicle sticks already on hand, you can already help your kids get started with this project.

Materials

In addition to popsicle sticks and glue or tape, you will need pictures to cut out and use as the characters. It’s up to you where you get the characters from and what types of characters you choose. Try looking through old magazines with your kids to find pictures to incorporate in the puppet show, either as characters, settings, or props. If you don’t find the right characters in magazines, you can look online for templates of puppets to download, print from your computer, and color. It’s a good idea to have some sheets of poster paper or cardboard on hand to glue to the backs of the pictures to make them stiff.

popsicle stick puppetsHow To

Once you’ve found enough pictures to create several characters, place the pictures over a piece of cardboard or poster paper and cut them out. Glue or tape the pictures to the popsicle stick. Then glue down the cardboard on the backside of the picture. Once you and your kids have made all of the characters, it’s time to find a stage. The characters should be visible while the puppeteers – aka, your kids – are hidden from sight. Around the house, furniture works best. Try using the back of a sofa or a low table. You can also try hanging a towel across a doorway.

Staging the Puppet Show

Your kids may not be short of ideas, but if they are, you can ask them questions to help get the story going. Ask where the puppets are going and what they would like to do. Ask about the relationships between the puppets – are they friends? Do they make a family? If your child is very young, you may have to demonstrate how to move the puppets. Inspire your child by giving them different voices. When the show is ready, sit back and enjoy. If it’s a success, try staging another showing for other members of the family.

popsicle puppets2Benefits

Staging a puppet show with popsicle stick puppets is a multi-step project that can help your children build language and cognitive skills. Making the puppets and playing with them assists in the development of fine motor skills and is a highly tactile experience for your kids. If you have several children or are planning a play-date, this is the perfect activity to keep kids busy. Not to mention, when kids have to work together to stage the puppet show it helps them learn to cooperate with others.

Summary

You’d be surprised just how easy it is to make puppets using only popsicle sticks, glue, magazines, and cardboard paper. If you find yourself stuck inside with the kids on a rainy day, staging a popsicle stick puppet show might be the perfect activity to keep your kids busy for hours.