Monday 11 January 2016

Turning a Story Book alive : D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets

Turning a Story Book alive : D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets @http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/


Imagination is a beautiful gift of childhood. 

With a growing collection of books, my 5-year-old is an avid reader. She loves reading through sight words and phonics and has gotten so good at it. Taking a cue, we have increased her stash of Read-it-yourself books. 

Meanwhile, her winter break project from school has been to make some puppets of their favorite story characters. 
She chose her story and wanted to make puppets of 'The Tortoise and The Hare' from Aesop's Fables.
As back to school got nearer, I got wondering whether a small puppet theater would interest her. She absolutely loved the idea. And here's what we made. 

Turning a Story Book alive : D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets @http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/
That's a old tissue box, of which the front has been cut out. Some printed stock images for the back ground.

Turning a Story Book alive : D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets @http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/
The images of a forest are to be glued on the insides to form a story back ground.

Turning a Story Book alive : D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets @http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/
Some tissue paper mache. Lots of cutting and sticking. We used a watered down white glue for the purpose. Leave to dry overnight. P.S. And no we didn't do all the gluing and cutting over that pretty rug of mine.

Turning a Story Book alive : D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets @http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/
Once completely dry and stiff , add a coat of color all over. Notice that lovely texture that paper mache gives. The idea was to get a feel of a wooden log .

Turning a Story Book alive : D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets @http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/
This is the front. We added some paper mache to replicate grass on the inside bottom too.

Turning a Story Book alive : D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets @http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/
Next some lovely animal cutouts from stock images. Few trees to add layers and depth to the theater. My daughter dutifully colored the main charachters - the tortoise and the hare.

Turning a Story Book alive : D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets @http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/
Now two slits at the top one for the tortoise (bottom straight) and one for the hare. The hare has a little stop over near a tree where he takes a nap.

Turning a Story Book alive : D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets @http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/
Time to bring in the actors.Tape our tortoise and the hare to two long wooden skewers which go through the slits in the box.

Turning a Story Book alive : D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets @http://colorsofourrainbow.blogspot.ae/
See that prize over there, guess who is going to win it? Time to get ready for the show.





Small and easy for her to handle, with simple stuff lying around the home we managed to create a puppet theater which is probably going to have unlimited shows, as we read her currently favorite story. 

This was the first time we did 'Paper Mache' at home, and that was a hit with all the glue and tearing and the mess of course. 

She carried the project with pride to school. 
Guess I need to stock up on used tissue paper boxes or any other box for that matter. We've got a lot of stories to read and many tissue box theaters to make :).





How to Sunday's small

My Bored Toddler

31 comments:

  1. Wow..love it! I am sure going to make this with little miss. .This is such a nice idea for them to explore and build up their own stories!

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    1. My 5 year old has got so good at reading for the past two months, especially emergent reader books. This was to encourage her, to motivate her and make her imagine her own stories too! Hope you try them out.

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  2. I LOVE your puppet theater! What a cool idea. Your daughter is a lucky kid. My children love fables and folktales too, and I could see my 6 year old twins getting a lot of play out of one of these. Thanks for linking up with Made for Kids this week.

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    1. Thank you for such a sweet comment, Heather! I am a lucky mom too you know ;) You should see her eyes light up when I mention reading and books. I am so happy she caught the reading bug from both her parents.

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  3. What a beautiful puppet theatre! Great idea. :)

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  4. A wonderful activity for kids and so easy to do. Pinning.

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    1. Thank you so much, Pam. It turned out much better than how we had imagined it in our heads.

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  5. A lovely crafty project! perfect to keep the kids amused! xx
    #HowToSunday

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  6. What a fabulous project - really love it x

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  7. My five year old would love this :) thanks for the inspiration

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  8. It looks fantastic, she should be very proud of all the hard (and messy!) work. I hope everyone at school appreciates the fab puppet theatre and puppets. Thank you so much for linking up to #HowtoSunday :) x

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    1. Hi Jenny. Yes the little missy was very very proud. She told me her project was photographed. Thank you for stopping by!

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  9. What a great theatre and a lovely way to help bring a story to life to continue the fun .
    Thanks for sharing #LetKidsbeKids

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    1. Thank you Karen. My daughter is stocking up on all kinds of boxes now :)

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  10. Love the idea of printing off a stock photo for the background.

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    1. Yup, the whole thing gets ready in a jiffy. Thanks for stopping by, Emma

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  11. Now where is my shoebox!! What a great idea! I might see if my folks can make a Gruffalo one! #LetKidsBeKids

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    1. Baby Isabella, a Gruffalo one would be awesome. I bet Your parents would get that wish to happen soon !!

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  12. This is such a Fantastic idea! I want to make one too! I wonder if my kids would want to do it...I hope so. #LetKidsBeKids

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    1. I really hope so for you too. My daughter has modeled one more on this one, all by herself for another of her favorite stories. She has improvised it by painting all of the insides with the colors of her imagination. That's mission accomplished for me.
      Thank you for stopping by, Erin!

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  13. What a beautiful activity to do with your child. I always love it doing a craft or activity that extends on a book. Thanks for sharing on Toddler Fun Friday :)

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  14. Oh my goodness! This D-I-Y Puppet Theater and puppets tutorial is amazing. I would love to make all this creative stuff for my twin’s 4th birthday celebration. Theater and puppets theme sounds perfect for their party. I will be reserving their favorite kid’s party New York venues.

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    1. Thank you Drew for stopping by. This would ofcourse make an amazing theme with endless possibilities. Let me assure you the work put in is not very complicated. Hope the birthday turns out magical.

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    2. Thank you Drew for stopping by. This would ofcourse make an amazing theme with endless possibilities. Let me assure you the work put in is not very complicated. Hope the birthday turns out magical.

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