Have a spooky puppet show filled with Halloween cats that dance and move along with your child's imagination. Shadow puppets are an ancient form of puppetry art that have been around for centuries in civilizations from Asia to Europe and beyond. This Halloween Cat Shadow Puppet activity encourages children to learn about the basic properties of light and shadow and shadow play, while forming and understanding of narrative story-telling.
Inspire your child to create a Halloween world, and then light up a very special puppet play. Use these puppets for everyday pretending or make a specific performance experience. This activity will also provide an excellent beginning shape-recognition exercise, as well as develop the part-to-whole mathematic relationship.
What You Need:
- Sturdy paper in dark colors
- White crayon or chalk
- Scissors
- Brass fasteners
- Craft sticks
- Tape
- White sheet or large piece of white paper
- Flash lights
What You Do:
- Ask your child what shapes a cat looks like. Is the head a circle? Where are there triangles (ears)? Have him draw these shapes using a white crayon or chalk onto black or other dark paper.
- Help your child cut the shapes out.
- Have your child arrange the shapes into the form of a cat. Relate this to building a puzzle out of different pieces.
- Help him connect the pieces together using brass fasteners. You should make the limbs of the cat puppet movable (the legs, the tail etc.)
- Tear off small pieces of tape, and help your child tape the craft sticks onto the movable puppet limbs (i.e. the arms and legs, or head)
- Hang up a white sheet or large piece of white paper. Place a light source such as a flash light behind it. An adult may need to hold the flashlight.
- Have your child (and his cat puppet) stand behind the white sheet.
- Start the puppet play!
Try creating a zoo full of puppet animals, or make some for different holidays. For example, for Halloween, in addition to your cat, your can also make a witch on a broomstick, or a jack-o-lantern. Invite friends over for a larger puppet show filled with spooky and suspenseful stories.
By Erica Loop
Erica Loop has an MS in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education. She has many years of teaching experience working in early childhood education, and as an arts educator at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
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