What You Need

• Puppets

How to Do this Activity

Use puppets to talk and play with your child — make up skits and ask open-ended questions, such as:

• “Why do you think that happened?”
• “How do you think he’s feeling?”
• “Why do you think she’s sad?”

You can also use puppets to help with specific times of the day — bed time, clean-up time, and more. If your child has a hard time putting away her toys, let the puppet set an example and say, “Look, Fluffy is helping clean up! Can you help Fluffy?”

What Your Child Learns

Through puppets, children develop language and creativity. They begin to understand the basic elements of story — that stories have characters and a beginning, middle, and end. Puppets can provide a safe, soothing vehicle for expressing feelings or teaching appropriate behavior.