Frog Felt Finger Puppets

Zip, zap, zut!  Froggy's catchin' flies!  The fly is sewn onto a long ribbon that is poked through the puppet near the frog's mouth. There is a tiny safety pin on the other end so a child can pull the fly into froggy's mouth. 

Happy Leap Year!

Frog Felt Finger Puppet Pattern

Triceratops/Dinosaur Finger Puppets

Roar! Use the template below for body pieces.  Cut horn shapes and white eye circles from small pieces of felt.  Use fabric paint to add nostrils, pupils, and a smile. Scallop/shape head as you like!

For a SUPER story to go with this dinosaur puppet, check out Elise Broach's When Dinosaurs Came with Everything.  This is a kid's dream come true, mood lifting story!  Real dinosaurs are given as treats as a boy goes through a day of errands... get a haircut, get a balloon, right? Not today, buddy! Get a Pterosaur instead! A triceratops at the bakery! A Stegasaurus after a doctor's visit! Meanwhile, you will relate to Mom who isn't taking this so well. She avoids the diner to miss getting a T. Rex but worries about taking care of her newly acquired herpetofauna. In the clever end, she ends up giving household jobs to all of the creatures. And they don't mind, because doing chores means they are part of the family. I LOVE that line! The watercolor/line drawing artwork is really fun, complementing the story and entertaining in the details. The style is easy to read and seamless with a child's perspective (complete with nagging! and it wasn't my fault!). You can't go wrong here!

Triceratops Finger Puppet Pattern

Germs! Biohazard!

These friendly guys are too cute to cause trouble... They were GERMS for our Mad Science party, but could be monsters for halloween or other party where tiny mischeivious beings are required (police? super hero?).  Have fun and let me know how you use them! 

 

Free Germ Finger Puppet Pattern



I spread the GERMS here:

Knight Party Dragon Felt Finger Puppets

 

These friendly dragons are great pals to have in the house! Use the template below for the bigger body parts and cut a fire shape from a scrap of red, sparkly felt.  I spread a thin layer of sparkly fabric paint on the wings and let dry before assembling.  Fabric paint works great for ears, claws, and facial features.

A perfect story to go along with these puppets is Raising Dragons, by Jerdine Nolen. This is one of that you will love as much as your kids. The prose will lead you into a southern drawl when you read it aloud, and the story will captivate you. A spunky girl who believes in magic, a family that believes in hard work and taking care of others... joy and a happy ending. A story that encourages young ones to follow their hearts and be true to themselves. I am keeping this one long after my kids fledge...

Another Dragon story choice is When a Dragon Moves In, by Jodi Moore and Howard McWilliam.  Nothing quite warms up a wintery bedtime than a beach story!  Here are oodles of fun times at a beach, written in a lively "If you give a mouse a cookie" style.  The usual topics are delightfully illustrated to spur on your own beach memories, such as building a castle, looking at tracks, swimming, eating, throwing sand, kite flying, book reading, and sibling rivalry. The fun is the dragon part and all the happy and detailed illustrations...The dragon is in all the scenes playing with the boy and defending him, but  is it real (yes! according to my younger son) or just his perspective (yes! according to my older son)?  No matter which way you decide, the fun is thinking about the power of imagination in the middle of happy, sandy memories. A perfect bedtime choice!

Dragon Finger Puppet Pattern

Hanging Froggy Tree Ornaments

You know it's spring when you here them a croakin' and a creekin'! Frog time!

We liked to decorate the otherwise barren tree in our front yard with the changing seasons. No problem for Christmas, even Halloween, but yard decorations aren't available for other seasons...

Yet, those branches look so bare!  How about a little craft foam to tide us over until the leaves come? You can make any shape your heart desires, and the foam is cheap and easy to cut! Even with tacky glue, the foam holds up well with the elements.  I made about 10 of each season's shape.

I always wondered if the tree ornaments were too much for the neighbors. However, when we moved, folks that lived on our street that we didn't even know stopped by to say they'd miss our decorations!

These days we no longer have a front yard tree to hang things on, but there's space for our between-Valentine's-and-Easter froggies on our front porch! See the template below for the frog design.

Frog Template

Eddy the Trout Earth Day Finger Puppets

Eddy the Trout is a Boise, ID character dedicated to help people learn about keeping the Boise River clean (Partners for Clean Water).  He even has his own Fin Club!




Eddy the Trout

If you're looking for a fish story to go along with this guy, you can't go wrong with Dear Fish, by, Chris Gall. A feast for the imagination!  Creatures come out of the ocean for a visit when Peter Alan sends them a note in a bottle while on vacation.  Eventually, Peter Allen asks the smelly lot to go back home (your mother's calling!), but the story has an open ending, when the fish ask the Allens come to the ocean for a visit.  What a great way to end, a dream inspirer!  Incredible artwork, fun words, puns to figure out and search for... I've got most of this one memorized because we've read it so often.

Frog Catching a Fly Finger Puppets

2008 was "the year of the frog", so to honor those amazing amphibians, I made these froggy puppets. The fly is sewn onto a ribbon (tongue), threaded through a small hole in froggy's mouth, and knotted with a small paperclip at the end. Little fingers can move the frog's tongue in and out to pretend he's catching a fly.

Cinco De Mayo Collared Lizards

These scaly guys would be great favors for a desert, reptile, or Cinco de Mayo party/unit.  For a Mexican flag, print out flag clip art and glue to a toothpick.  Let me know how you like them!

Lizard Felt Finger Puppet

Spring Peepers