Sock Puppets on the Road

Traveling with children, especially small children, can be difficult. You know they're going to get cranky and you're really not looking forward to it. Make and take some sock puppets on the road to help keep your child happy on the trip.

Almost everyone has lost a sock while doing the laundry. Some people have lost more socks than they'd care to admit. What do you do with all the unmatched socks? Create sock puppets, of course!

Before you plan a road trip with your children, let them create sock puppets out of some of the sock monster's leftovers. With some simple craft items, your child can make a number of sock puppets that they can play with at any time. They're particularly great for taking with when you're going on a trip.

What do you need to make sock puppets? In their simplest form, children can play with sock puppets made merely from an unmatched sock. They can be embellished to include eyes, hair, and even clothing. It all depends upon how creative and resourceful your children are. Here are some common craft items you can use to make your sock puppet:

-Adult-sized socks
-Buttons or wiggly eyes
-Felt scraps or yarn
-Pipe cleaners (also known as chenille stems)
-Fabric paint
-Craft glue
-Needle and thread

If your child has a favorite story, you may want to help them create different puppets for each of the characters in the story. They can act out the story with their sock puppets on the road or make up stories of their own with the same characters. In fact, if you're going to be on the road for very long, your children can plan a whole story to share with the family that you're planning on seeing.

To give the sock puppet a little bit of weight and to help give them shape, push crumpled up tissue paper or cotton balls into the toe where the fingers are. You can then create nostrils for a dragon or horse by sewing and shaping the cotton balls to keep them in place.

Bring along stories on CD and let your children act out the stories while you're driving. Not only will this give them something to do, it's something that everyone except the driver can participate in. Practise the movements so they can put on a sock puppet show, with your help, when you arrive at your destination.

It has been proven that the act of creating things is good for your child's creativity and imagination. By taking their sock puppets on the road with them the next time you're traveling, you're encouraging them to use their imagination. Not only will they enjoy playing with their sock puppets, they'll be too busy to ask you if you're "there yet" - which will help you enjoy the trip, as well.

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Hand Puppets

A hand puppet is a type of puppet that is controlled by a hand placed inside it. The puppeteer has his hand over the puppet’s head and controls the movement of the mouth and the head with other parts of the body hanging over the forearm. Other parts of the body can be operated by using the other hand, strings or rods, or more elaborate puppets may have mechanical apparatus with a remote control. Hand puppets can made simple items found at home such as an old sock, juice container or a paper bag, to more complicated items such manufactured with plastics and fabric coverings.

Creating simple hand puppets are usually part of children’s art and crafts class. Simple household items are used to create the puppets. Socks, juice containers, or small paper bags can be used as the body of the puppets. The eyes can either be drawn in with a marker pen or using paper cut outs. Additional designs could include the lips, the hair, design of the shirt, and others. A kid would usually design a puppet based on prominent character from a cartoon or TV show.

Puppets have been a great way to portray stories with moral lessons through puppet shows. Churches have long been using puppets to evangelize to both kids and adults alike. In fact, there are several puppet manufacturers who specialize in creating puppets based on biblical characters for evangelic meetings, outreach programs and Sunday schools. The puppets would have different skin tones, facial features, hair styles and costumes and props to depict one character from the other.

A beautiful puppet needs to be accompanied by a lively and creative puppeteer. The bright colors and costumes of the puppet may captivate the audience visually, but combined with a master puppeteer, it can become a complete entertainment experience.

Puppets provides detailed information on Puppets, Puppet Masters, Hand Puppets, Marionette Puppets and more. Puppets is affiliated with Jigsaw Puzzles. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristy_Annely