Playing with Puppets - Celebrating Jim Henson

Statue of Jim Henson at Maryland University

Today Google celebrates the 75^th birthday of Jim Henson. They have created a special Google logo so we can all be puppeteers if only for a few moments. Go to Google today and click on the logo to make the puppets respond to your commands.

In reading about Jim Henson today I discovered that he loved dogs. Coincidentally, I wrote a blog post last week, in honor of Adopt a Dog Month in October. This link will lead you to that blog post. http://tinyurl.com/3wvyd29

And of course, we all know that Kermit the Frog is one of the best known puppets created by Jim. Here is a blog post from 2010, which of course is all about frogs. http://karenchace.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-is-national-frog-month-so-get.html

So here’s to Jim Henson and all of the wonderful moments he added to our lives!

 

STORIES AND SCRIPTS

The Four Puppets – Burma
http://www.aaronshep.com/stories/043.html

Legends and Lore – Scripts to bring The Three Little Pigs, Iktomi and the Kettles and others come alive.  http://www.legendsandlore.com/scripts.html

Officer of Heaven – An easy finger puppet play from Western China. http://www.auntannie.com/Puppets/ConeFinger/OfficerOfHeavenPlay.pdf

Puppets for Librarians – Storyteller Granny Sue and librarian Nancy Whetstone have joined forces to create this useful puppetry blog. Stories, crafts and more.
http://tinyurl.com/3wrymx6

BOOKS

Southeast Kansas Library Systems – Puppet and Fingerplays bibliography.
http://tinyurl.com/3u3vvst

CRAFTS

Alligator Arm Puppet – Easy craft with template.
http://tinyurl.com/3md48tc

Paper Cone Finger Puppets – Five easy animal puppets to complement the play, Officer of Heaven above in the Stories and Scripts section . Templates provided.
http://www.auntannie.com/Puppets/ConeFinger/

DLTK-KIDS.COM– A wide variety of paper bag puppets to suit many themes.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/paper_bag.htm

Sack Puppet
http://www.legendsandlore.com/sackpuppets.html

Sock Puppet
http://www.legendsandlore.com/sockpuppets.html

CURRICULUM

Chinese Lesson Plan – Shadow Puppets
http://ncta.osu.edu/lessons/china/lit/Hendricks-China.pdf

Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Tall Tales and Puppets! Grade 3-5
http://www.cccoe.net/tales/PUPPET_LES.pdf

Scholastic.com– Grade 3-4
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3746930

 

PUPPETRY TECHNIQUES AND TUTORIALS

Legends and Lore – Puppet Manipulation http://www.legendsandlore.com/puppetmanipulation.html 

Puppet Productions – Basic Techniques of Puppetry Manipulation. Techniques to help you make your puppet come alive!
http://tinyurl.com/3ob8jpy

Tips for Puppeteers YouTube Videos - Paul Lewis from Puppets and Stuff.com offers a series of tutorials to help you learn to master the art.
http://tinyurl.com/3gamyx7

Tips for Using Puppets With Young Children – Storyteller Priscilla Howe shares her successful techniques.
http://tinyurl.com/3n2ld7m

 

MORE RESOURCES

Storybug.net - Puppets and Puppetry – A number of resources I have collected over the years can be found on my website. * There are a few dead links, which will be removed shortly and the new URL for Puppets with a purpose is http://www.puppetswithapurpose.com/ . That will be updated shortly as well, as soon as my amazing webmaster has time.
http://www.storybug.net/links/puppets.html

Karen Chace  2011 ©
This blog post was painstakingly researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my newsletter via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.