Teacher Resources

Classroom Holiday Puppet Theatre November 05 2009, 0 Comments

This puppet theatre is beautiful and it's easy to make.

Your students will love to create puppet shows. It's a great center or literacy work station activity. (See page 67 of Literacy Work Stations for Debbie's re-telling puppet show idea). The children can also make "Kathy the Cat" puppets to practice short vowel sounds.

Large box (wardrobe boxes are perfect, but any box will work).
Paint (any colors)
Paintbrushes
Scissors or knife (only for the adult)
Fabric (for the drapes)
White fabric or pillow case (for the backdrop)
White paper (to color a scene and tape it onto the pillow case backdrop)
Smocks for painting (Younger children may like to get the paint all over the place. A 2-year old painted this theatre, so we painted it in the driveway and she wore her rain jacket and rainboots, which were easy to clean.)

Instructions:

Adult cuts a hole for the stage.
Children paint the theatre. The children can finger paint or use the brushes.
Let the theatre dry.
Adult glues on fabric for the curtains.
If you have a wardrobe box, take out the center metal bar. Cut open the pillow case and insert the drapes onto the bar. You could also just drape fabric over the bar. If it's not a wardrobe box, tape or glue the fabric to the back of the box.
Children draw scenes from the puppet show onto the white paper and tape it to the back of the box on the white fabric backdrop.

Charlie Brown & the Mayflower
Sailing Around the World poem by Betsy Franco (pg. 89). It's a great idea to have her poems near the puppet theatre for the children to act out on their own. Betsy has lots of poems that would work nicely as a puppet show.
Rudolph, Frosty & Friends Sing Along (Learn some songs and the puppets act out the songs/stories)
A Charlie Brown Christmas