How to Host Your Very Own Puppet Show
July 22nd, 2009. Published under Entertainment. No Comments.
Most parents would like their kids to spend less time playing video games and watching TV, but coming up with different ways to keep them entertained can be tough. Children spend a lot of time at home during the summer and you can’t send them outside to play on rainy days. What can you do?
For one thing, you can host your very own puppet show! Reading aloud to your children is a great activity in and of itself, but acting out a story can hold their attention even better. If you have younger children, this is a great way to spend quality time with them, and if your kids are older, then you can encourage them to put on a puppet show of their own.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Puppet Show Style
Creating a puppet show can be surprisingly simple and is very budget friendly. You may already have some puppets, but if you don’t you don’t have to rush out and buy them. Almost all children have some stuffed animals and, for the girls, at least a few dolls. Since the kids will already have an emotional attachment to their favorite toys, a show starring their toy friends will have more impact than the same story acted out elsewhere.
To liven things up a bit, you can dress up the “stars” with accessories from around the house, like hats, scarves, sunglasses or reading glasses, jewelry, and whatever else is handy. For the set, you can decorate a box for the stage and find other items around the house for props. Kitchenware and doll furniture work well here.
For our purposes, let’s suppose that you want to recreate the classic fairytale, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” For the characters you will need a Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and of course, Goldilocks. All you need here is three different size bears, or at least three bears, one of which is smaller to be Baby Bear, and a doll, like Barbie.
To get the bears in character, dress them in appropriate fashion. A bib or pacifier tied to his neck works best for Baby Bear, but kid’s clothes can work too. Some glasses or a necktie turn any bear into Papa Bear. For Mama Bear, a bow or some jewelry are all you need.
Although professional puppeteers use strings and rods to manipulate their characters, you can keep it a lot simpler. You can use a stick, a ruler, or an sharpened pencil and just lightly tape them to your puppets in order to maneuver them.
If you are good with voices or aren’t interested in getting too high-tech, then you can simply raise a paw with your hand occasionally, and make them walk by holding them from the underside and tilting them from side to side slightly as they cross the “stage.”
The Set and the Props
Your next step once you have cast the “stars” is to organize the props you will need. For the bear’s dinner table, you can use a tiny box, some plastic kitchenware, or any item of appropriate size covered by a handkerchief (tablecloth.) For the porridge bowls, try some wrappers from “Reeses” cups or “Ferrero Rocher”. Bottle caps are also about the right size and roughly bowl shaped.
You can cut and trim foam cups for chairs. Trim Mama Bear’s cup slightly so that it is smaller than Papa’s chair, and cut Baby’s chair so that it is the shortest of all. Foam cups have the added advantage of being breakable, so that Goldilocks can break the chair when she sits down. You can make beds out of small boxes covered with handkerchiefs or napkins for sheets. Just remember to scale them in three different sizes. Now your cast and props are ready. Wasn’t that simple?
Now you are all ready to put on your puppet show. You can entertain your kids on a rainy day, or any day for that matter. You can share a classic story and all you need are some stuffed animals, a doll, and common household items. This may prove so popular that you will want to do other children stories as puppet shows!
Ready to create your very own fairytale puppet show? Find the best teddy bears and cutest stuffed animals from all habitats at http://www.KCPlush.com and build the most memorable show in history.