Save old and unpaired socks to use as puppets.
Stick on paper eyes and features and encourage children to bring their puppets to life with different voices and characters.
They may even want to put on a puppet show with their friends!
What do children learn from puppet play?
- Playing with sock puppets is a fun way to develop your toddler's conversation skills.
- Allowing your toddler to lead the conversation will help them build confidence using new words.
- You can use puppets to help children learn about their emotions.
- Making the puppet's mouth move helps develop children's fine motor skills.
- Creating a character for your sock puppet encourages creativity, imagination and storytelling.
Top tips for puppet play
Put a sock on one of your hands and help your toddler to do the same. Show your child how to move their thumb and fingers so that the end of the sock puppet works like a mouth.
Give your sock puppet a name and bring their puppets to life with different voices.
Try and allow your toddler to lead the conversation, as it will help them build confidence using new words.
You could ask them to tell you their favourite story, describe their day or sing a song together.
Why not put on a puppet show with friends and other family members?
This will encourage them to use their imagination to come up with a story.
±«Óătvmade fun
You don't always need to go to the shops to buy toys. Here are a few more activities where you can create your own fun using household objects:
- Have some sensory fun with our homemade playdough recipe.
- Who needs paint when you can use teabags? It's also a great way of reusing old tea bags!
- Make your own snap cards or matching pairs game with just some paper and pencils.
- Did you know you could create your own ball run at home with some cardboard tubes and a door, fridge or wardrobe?
