P is for . . .

. . . popcorn!

. . . puzzles!

. . . puppets!
Our kids loved playing with our easy homemade puppet theater. It is designed to fit in any doorway and it is pretty simple to make. If you are interested, visit the instructions here. After the kids had their turn, we were so lucky to have a guest teacher join us. My friend Britta teacher preschool near by and I asked her to help me put on a Three Little Pigs puppet show for the kids. We used the fun script at this website. 

Ms. Jeri favored us with a little song. She combined play dough and puppets. It was pretty cute.

. . . play dough!

. . . pizza!

Spring Time Song with Finger Puppets

 Spring is upon us and summer is fast approaching. In our neck of the woods, everyone is planting their gardens and the roses are starting to bloom. Here is a fun spring time song with finger puppets for the kids to play along while you sing. 

It is titled In the Leafy Tree Tops. It is from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints children's songbook. The song can be listened to or downloaded at lds.org. Or you can go directly to the song here.

When we sing this each child has a flower on a popsicle stick and a bird finger puppet. Cut out the circles where the beak should be and their thumb and pointer finger become the beak. My holes are a little small, so you might have to cut a little bigger than what is drawn. I printed the bird to be about 5 inches tall.

In the Leafy Tree Tops

 In the leafy treetops, the birds sing "Good morning."

They're first to see the sun.

They must tell ev'ryone.

In the leafy treetops, the birds sing "Good morning."

In my pretty garden, the flowers are nodding.

"How do you do?" they say.

"How do you do today?"

In my pretty garden, the flowers are nodding.

I hope you have a great spring and that the birds sing and flowers bloom in your garden!

3 Little Pigs Puppet Show

 Kids and puppet theaters are something that should mix often. Watching a puppet show put on by 4 year olds is so awesome. If you haven't seen one, it should be the next thing you put on your bucket list. So much cuteness!  You can see by our audience pictures that it makes for some fun times. 

We have this fun puppet theater that is pretty easy to make and is adjustable to fit into different door frames or walk ways. The post with the information on the step by step is here.

This year we also made our own paper bag pig puppets (lots of letter p's in that project) We used the template from http://www.first-school.ws. 

After the kids had some fun, I asked some of the moms to come in and help me do a puppet show for the kids. We did a funny version of the 3 Little Pigs. It is so much fun to listen to their laughter and to hear them calling out to the characters during the show. One of these days I am going to get someone to record it for me because I want to see their faces. 

The Gingerbread Man

We had fun talking about gingerbread men and gingerbread houses this holiday season. 

 

We read the gingerbread man book. Then, we made our own running gingerbread men finger puppets. I got the idea from another blogger and liked it so much. 

Here's What You Need:

• empty cereal boxes
• crayons
• hot glue gun
• scissors
• gingerbread man cookie cutter

Here's What You Do:

1. Trace the gingerbread cookie cutter onto the back of a cereal box but make the legs a lot longer and straighter. 
2. Cut out the gingerbread man.
3. Cut out two strips about 3/4 inch tall and long enough to fit around your finger.
4. Hot glue the strips into a rolled tube.
5. Color your gingerbread man.
6. Hot glue one circle to the back of each leg to insert your fingers to make it run. Bend the legs and run, run, run as fast as you can!

Puppets & Pigs

You have never seen one of life's greatest joys until you have seen a puppet show put on by 4 year olds. Oh. My. Goodness. It was adorable and cute and funny. I loved being able to just sit and watch their little personalities shine through.

And I love how my 3 year old class did not understand the concept of hiding behind the curtain. Their little eyes peeking out are just so fun!


I made this puppet theater and did a Three Little Pigs puppet show for the kids for letter P week. The theater was actually pretty easy to make. I followed the instructions found here on wikihow. You basically take a table cloth and cut it apart to make three panels that you hang on a spring tension rod in a doorway. It was really easy because you use a lot of the seams that are already there so you don't have to do a ton of sewing.

I'm not going to include the step by step instructions here because you can find them on the link I posted. I will offer a few tips of things that I learned:

First, the bottom curtain is suspended from the top bar with ribbon. Then it uses a dowel inserted into the curtain to keep it's shape. (See instruction 14 here if you are confused.) Instead of a dowel, I used a light weight valance rod to prevent the bottom curtain from swinging when it was hit.

Second, a basic table cloth isn't necessarily long enough to do a proper curtain so I just added a few strips of cloth to the bottom to make it a little longer. It was really quick and easy and it saved me the cost of having to buy two table cloths.

Third, it was easier for the kids to play when I took down the blue curtain in the background. They felt like they had more freedom and they could see what they were doing.

If this is clear as mud, you can always contact me for help. Enjoy!