How to Stage a Puppet Show for Children

Children love to watch a puppet show. They pay closer attention to what is being said and retain the information better with visual clues. With a little practice, you can put on an entertaining puppet show for the children in your life. Follow these steps to learn more.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Friends or family members
• Stereo
• Juice and cookies
• Audience of children
• Recorded story
• Music
• Portable puppet stage
• Puppets

1. Decide who you will perform your puppet show to. Day-care centers, Sunday schools and your own children all make good audiences. Call day-care centers and local churches to schedule times you can perform for them.
2. Find a place where you can buy or borrow puppets and a puppet stage, or make your own. Many local libraries have puppets you can check out as well as books on building stages and making puppets. Party supply companies like Oriental Trading Company sell puppets at reasonable prices. Call [phone] to request a catalog.
3. Pick a story and music to perform based on your audience and available puppets. Check your local library for books containing puppet theater scripts. Fairy tales, fables and Bible stories all make good choices, or you can write your own.
4. Practice reading the story out loud and then record it, or purchase a story on CD or cassette tape. When you use a recording of the story, you don't have to worry about reading lines during the performance.
5. Ask family and friends to help you put on the puppet show. You will need someone to run the stereo system and others to operate puppets if the story involves more than two characters on stage at once.
6. Rehearse the puppet show several times to practice moving their mouths to the words of the story and the lyrics of the songs. Work on smoothly switching to different puppets during the show. Try out different movements to give your puppets personality.
7. Arrive early to see the room you will perform in, and decide how to best use the space. Set up your portable puppet stage and stereo, leaving enough floor space for your audience. Bring batteries for your stereo in case you do not have access to an electric outlet.
8. Use the puppets to greet the children as they enter, and tell jokes before the performance starts. Perform your puppet show. Enjoy the children's laughter and applause when you are finished.

Tips & Warnings

• Have cookies and juice boxes ready for the children to enjoy during the performance.
• Choose songs to go with your story that the children know. Encourage them to sing along.
• Young children have short attention spans, so keep your performance under 30 minutes in length.

Who Can Help:

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