This weeks art Saturday we decided to make our very own puppet theater. While planning out our Smurf lesson plans I came across some very adorable Smurf paper doll printables. Since we have done paper dolls several times this year we have accumulated quite the collection, but the kiddo still wanted to do something with the pages I found. Always accommodating, I sat down and drafted up some ideas, below is the one we all liked best; Puppet Theater! Check out the step by step instructions of our cheap and easy Puppet Theater that has already brought us so much joy and hours of fun! You can also download all of the printables I found/created to use when making your own Puppet Theater!
The materials we used….
- Small dowel rods
- Felt
- Googly eyes
- Velcro buttons and strips (peel & stick)
- Ribbon
- Cardstock
- Pop cycles
- Tri-fold poster board
- Laminate
- Glue
- Glitter
We started out with the simplest step, choosing our puppets, printing, and laminating. If you have been following me at all on any platform you probably know by now, I laminate EVERYTHING I possibly can! Since I laminate so much my husband got me this cute little Scotch brand laminate machine (pictured to the right) you can get at Wal-Mart for under $20! So far it’s been worth every cent! I highly recommend it!
Next we got out tri-fold board and made our cut. I made sure it was just the right size to accommodate the backgrounds we have! The kiddo has several busy books, if you don’t know what that is they are books that come with toys and play mats. Since the play room is pretty decked out the play mats rarely get used so I decided they would make a great addition to our puppet theater! After we were sure the backgrounds would work we started decorating the front! I let the kid choose everything we used to decorate naturally but we did keep it pretty basic. However simple I think it still came out pretty cute!
Once the front was finished I moved on to the back. I did most of the back by myself since it’s basically just set up for storage. The first thing I did was reinforce the folds with a little tape. With all the bending and moving I wanted to make sure it didn’t fall apart while being played with. I attached velcro to the top and bottom of the hole, then attached velcro to the backgrounds so they could be switched out. They attach at the corners so the puppets can be slid in from the top or bottom. I also attached a strip of velcro slightly higher so the puppet sticks could be attached, left stationary, so the kiddo can use several puppets at a time for the stories. I put velcro buttons on the back of each puppet and the puppet theater to store them. The puppets are interchangeable with the sticks. I wrapped both ends of each stick in velcro and made a place for them to be hung and stored as well. I also printed out and laminated some Puppet Theater tickets which you can download in the pack below!
In addition to printing puppets, we made some silly ones of our own. I don’t know about other peoples children but mine freaking LOVE creating their own stuff a million times more than buying or finding it online, so naturally when the idea of puppets came up Little asked is we could make some as well! I can’t use scissors as well as I used since my elbow injury which is why we only did heads, but I had some blue pop-cycle sticks that did the job well enough to please the youngest!
Downloads….
I have included just a few jokes to the right for some inspiration and ideas for you and your little ones to use when filling out the black cards provided in the pack to the left! To get more kid friendly joke ideas click HERE!
1. What do you call a dinosaur that is sleeping? A dino-snore!
2. What is fast, loud and crunchy? A rocket chip!
3. Why did the teddy bear say no to dessert? Because she was stuffed.
4. What has ears but cannot hear? A cornfield.
5. What did the left eye say to the right eye? Between us, something smells!
We had a little stand up show with our joke cards! It was a lot of fun and a big hit with the youngest! Maybe let your little ones preform a little comedy show for y’all!
Be sure to check out our easy to do DIY Smurf homes as well! Did you make your own? I’d love to see me e-mail anytime!
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I want to make it very clear that I do NOT get paid to promote anything on the lists in anyway, nor does anyone I know. The products are not sent to me/friends/family to review. I have found and used/researched these on my own. I spend a significant amount of time each month on amazon searching around to find the best products to aid in our homeschool journey at the best deals! Now you can benefit from my hours of work as well! I have put together lists of teaching aids, books, kits and more that may prove useful and helpful on your homeschool journey as well! I have also put together a list of family matching clothing, shoes and accessories. Our youngest is very much into matching mom, so every spring we choose a few matching outfits and things that are always a big hit with our friends and family. Everything we have bought or simply just considered is on the list. Please note the sizes and colors displayed may not be the matching item. Also some things may say out of stock, however it may only be for the size and/or color that was selected when the item was added to the list. Click on the item to check the availability of your desired sizes/colors for sure.
AGIAN, I want to make it very clear that I do not get paid to promote anything on the lists in anyway, nor does anyone I know. The products are not sent to me/friends/family to review. I have personally researched and/or used everything on the lists above myself, (aside from the family marching products, some of those were considered and viewed but not purchased) which is why I feel comfortable recommending these items to you. If anyone finds a recalled or poorly reviewed product on the list that I may have somehow missed PLEASE contact me and let me know! I hope you find these list and their contents as useful, helpful, and fun as we have! If there’s a type of shopping list you’d like to see created please feel free to send me the request and I will do my best to set it up asap! Enjoy and happy teaching!
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