Three Free Pumpkin Puppet Craft Ideas for Preschool Students
Development
Craft time in preschool is more than just fun – it is a valuable way for children to develop their fine motor skills as they learn to manipulate the items they use to build the crafts. Teachers can also take the opportunity to review counting as they work with the pom poms by having children count the pom poms and their fingers so that they can see that they have one for each finger on one hand. How many would they have for both hands?
Take this opportunity to help students develop their creativity and fine motor skills using these crafts. Children will practice manipulating markers, paint brushes, scissors and glue, all while they are having fun getting ready for Halloween!
Teacher Prep
In order to prepare for these activities, teachers should make the craft are ready by gathering together the materials listed below that go with each craft. Pick the craft that you would like to do with your students and gather the corresponding materials together
Glove Puppet
- A glove for each student
- Small orange pom poms.
- Black felt or other fabric scraps
- scissors
- glue
Stick Puppets
- Craft sticks
- Newspaper
- Orange cloth 4" x 4" squares.
- String
- Black Marker
Balloon Puppets
- Orange Balloons
- Black Markers
Pick a Puppet
After choosing one of the free and easy pumpkin crafts and gathering the materials together for the craft, follow the instructions below to complete the craft with your preschool class.
Glove Puppet
To make the glove puppet, follow the instructions listed below.
- Give each child a glove and 5 orange pom poms.
- Ask the children to glue a pom pom to the top of each finger of the glove.
- Ask the children to use the scraps of black material to make faces on the pom poms by gluing the scraps to them.
- Once the glue dries, children can put on the gloves and play with their puppet pumpkins!
Stick Puppets
Follow the directions listed below to help your students to make their stick puppets.
- Give each child a couple of sheets of newspaper.
- Ask the children to crumple the sheets into small balls.
- Instruct the children to set the newspaper aside.
- Give each child a craft stick and a piece of orange cloth.
- Help students to place the cloth on the craft stick, stuff it with newspaper and tie it on the stick at the bottom with a string.
- Help students to decorate and create a face on their craft stick puppet pumpkins using the black marker.
- Allow students to play with their puppets.
Balloon Puppets
Follow the instructions below to make your balloon puppets.
- Give each child a blown up orange balloon.
- Give each child a black marker.
- Help children to create faces on their balloons using their black markers.
- Encourage children to play with their balloon puppets.
As you can see, these are some relatively easy projects for preschool children to do. After making the puppets consider having the children act out a story or sing a song with their puppets.
