Puppet play is one of the most fun educational activities you can do with your children. Puppets are fantastic since you don’t have to use pricey store-bought ones—you can make your own. The objective of putting on a puppet show is to provide interactivity, engaging conversation, and even a surprise element to your child’s playtime and learning sessions.
Interactivity, conversation, and surprise can be hugely beneficial in the crucial learning years of a child’s development. Continue reading to learn how to craft your own pool noodle puppet show.
Build the Stage
The first step is to give your kids’ puppets the perfect stage to perform on. Your best option for a straightforward puppet stage is a large cardboard box. First, cut a window out of one side of the box.
To build the supports for your puppet theater, cut three nine-inch segments out of a pool noodle. Then, slice a thin piece off each noodle segment lengthwise so it doesn’t roll around. Next, make a horizontal incision approximately 1-1.5" deep in the middle of each noodle, on the side opposite the flat surface. Finally, insert the cardboard piece into the cuts to secure the theater upright. Now, you and your children can decorate the stage.
Gather Supplies
This project is simple so that children of all ages can enjoy creating puppets for a puppet show. Honor Trading Company can provide you with all the foam noodles you’ll need for the puppets’ bodies and faces. You can purchase the rest of the supplies at a local craft store or online.
Get some pool noodles in your kids’ favorite colors. Then, gather pom-poms, googly eyes, chenille stems, safety scissors, and craft glue for the kids, and a serrated knife for you to cut the noodles. You can also grab hot glue and regular scissors to use if your kids need some help.
Bringing the Puppets to Life
Before handing the pool noodles over to your children, cut them into 6", 5", and 4" sections. Then, invite the kids to glue the googly eyes on the foam puppets. Next, they can use the chenille stems to make wavy arms, hands, legs, feet, hair, and facial features.
You can help kiddos insert chenille stems into the pool noodle or use a dab of glue to secure the stems. Afterward, kids can glue the pom-poms in various places to make the puppets’ noses, lips, hair, hands, chin, and ears. Finally, let everything dry, and then it’s showtime!
Now your children are ready to put on their own pool noodle puppet show whenever they want. You can always make more puppets using jumbo swim noodles from Honor Trading Company. Feel free to contact us with any questions about our products.