Digging around in the kitchen is all-time favorite pastime of kids this age. Whether it be looking for pots and pans to bang or some Tupperware to hold a magic potion, it's hard to keep little hands out of the kitchen drawers. Here's a fun activity that encourages them to look around the kitchen and use their imagination to make utensil-shaped puppets.
Ask your preschooler to gather some wooden spoons, spatulas, whisks, or other safe items from the kitchen and get drawing. When she's done, she'll have a medley of funky puppets to put on a show!
What You Need:
- Kitchen utensils (wooden spoons, whisks, strainers, etc.)
- Construction paper
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Popsicle stick (or paint stirrer)
- Markers
- Glue
- Decorations (glitter, sequins, yarn)
What To Do:
- Let the kids gather several kitchen utensils such as wooden spoons, strainers, whisks, or spatulas.
- Have them place their object of choice on a piece of construction paper and trace around the edges with a pencil.
- Encourage them to use objects that have a long handle.
- Cut out the shape with scissors. Ask them to really look at the shape and see what it inspires in them – is it a monster, princess, animal or knight? Let them decorate the shape with markers, glitter, sequins, etc. If you have yarn to use for hair, that would be a great, three dimensional added touch.
- When they're done, glue a paint stirrer or popsicle stick to the long end of the cut-out. A kitchen utensil cut-out puppet is born!
Lisa M. Cope is a freelance writer who focuses on parenting and child development issues, among many others. She is the mother of two boys, ages five and two.
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