Paper Bag Puppets

What you'll need:

• brown paper lunch sacks
• crayons
• yarn
• scissors
• tape/glue
• glitter, stickers, other decorative items
• construction paper

Here's a good "rainy day" craft you can do with your children. It incorporates imaginative play as well as fine motor skills. I did this with my son in snap and he loved it. He's only two, so I had to help quite a bit. But an older child can do a lot of this with your supervision.

First, we took a brown paper lunch sack. I drew a face, with the mouth on the fold of the bag (allowing the puppet to open its mouth and "speak").

Next, we decorated/colored the puppets clothes. My son enjoyed this part because he got to scribble.

Once it's clothes were complete, I took some yarn I had around the house and cut it to look like hair. Using tape, I attached her "pigtails" to the sides of here hair. Glue will work just as well. But we were in a hurry and didn't want to wait for the glue to dry.

To make things more interesting, use construction paper for cut-out shapes to create animals and other characters.

And there you have it...A paper bag puppet ready to explore the world of your child's imagination.

For older children, encourage them to work together to create a puppet show that they can present to you later.

For more fun, visit stinkeepants.com for online games.

Here's a great game for preschoolers! If you find yourself trying to teach relative position to toddlers and kindergarteners here is a great way to start.

DO you remember a game called Chinese Jump Rope? (Why it was called thisI do not know, I think because you were supposed to play with bamboo like sticks instead of a jump rope, but I will not claim to be an expert on that.) Either way, you get two jump ropes, make parallel lines, and of course YOU have to go first to show them how to play (prepare to lose your breath ;), and GO:

Jump IN (inside the two ropes)

Jump OUT (outside of the two ropes)

Jump SIDE to SIDE (outside on one side, and outside on theother side)

Jump ON (you guessed it…on top of the two ropes)

Jump IN

Jump OUT

I almost forgot, the challenge is that you raise the ropes each turn you have….have fun!

Just thought I would pass it along. And if you guys get too tired from playing, remember there are tons of great games waiting at stinkeepants.com ;).