Monday, July 2, 2012

coat hanger puppets


If your kids are anything like mine, there is some serious make-believe play going on in your house.  Addie and Bella dive into elaborate make-believe worlds for hours on end sometimes!  Arabella is especially good at character play.  She can turn two olives into a Mommy and Daddy and they both have different voices and adventures together for the entire time she is sitting for dinner.  It's amazing to listen to them.

Yesterday, we turned two of their stuffed animals (a kitty and a monkey) into marionette style puppets.  The idea came to me when they were both bending over making their animals walk and talk and I thought there must be a better way for them to allow their stuffed friends to interact.

It was so simple!  You will need a coat hanger, string, tape, scissors and a stuffed animal of your child's choosing.

Tie strings to your animals limbs and around the neck.  Tie the strings to different sides of the hanger and tape the string in place so it can't slide around.



Play with the lengths of the stings and the positioning of the stuffed animal.  We wanted the kitty's head to stay upright so we tied the string around its neck a bit shorter than the rest.


You could do this with Popsicle sticks or other household objects but the coat hanger makes a nice puppet handle.  Is that what you call it?  Anyhow, it was a hit with the girls.

The monkey and kitty had all sorts of adventures walking around together and dancing.

Ashlynn liked it too.  

4 comments:

Just US said...

What a fabulous idea!! My kids would love puppet stuffed animals!

Daniela Swider said...

That's so cute! I am going to try it with my little ones. Thanks for the idea!

Megan said...

Good thinking sis. You should remember to add this to the rainy day activity list!

Sara said...

It's going to be a long rainy season but hopefully fun crafts like this can get us through without Mama pulling her hair out (too much).