Sock Puppets

 

            Today's Snack: Children might like to nibble a face in a round of bologna, and play with it like a puppet for a little bit before they devour it, perhaps with a slice of cheese and some veggies, which may or may not "come alive" and become puppets, too.

 

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Supplies:

See lists, below

 

 

Finally! You can get your revenge on the gremlins who steal socks in the laundry, leaving you to question your own sanity as to why you have so many unmatched socks.

 

Turn them into a toy! You and your child(ren) and friends can make an adorable sock puppet, or a whole set of puppets, out of these humble household leftovers, using snips and scraps and whatever's on hand.

 

 

            You can make a lovely lady out of any color sock, using sequins, netting, silk ribbons and yarn for hair. Or make a bird on a colorful sock with colorful fake feathers and a "beak" of orange felt. Make a pig out of a pink sock with pink felt and strip-curled pink ribbon for the tail. The possibilities are endless! Here are just two:

 

            To make a puppy:

 

            Sock (white or tan)

            Hot-glue gun

            Toilet paper roll

            Pencil

            Googly eyes

            One pom-pom

            Scissors

            Bits of brown felt

 

            Pull the sock over your hand, and mark with a pencil where you want the eyes, nose and ears to go. Now pull the sock over the toilet paper roll. Do your hot-gluing on the roll, not your hand, so you don't get burned. Glue on the eyes and the pom-pom for the nose. Cut two ears out of the brown felt. Glue in place. Cut irregularly-shaped blobs and ovals out of the brown felt as the "spots" in the dog's fur. Glue on. ARF!

 

            To make a horse:

 

            Sock (any color)

            Hot-glue gun

            Toilet paper roll

            Pencil

            Googly eyes

            Felt scraps, same color as sock

            Felt scraps, preferably brown

            Yarn, contrasting color to sock

            1-foot strip of thin (1/8 in.) leather

 

            Pull the sock over your hand, and mark with a pencil where you want the eyes, nostrils and ears of the horse. Glue on eyes. Cut nostrils out of brown felt; glue in place. Cut triangular ears out of same-color felt; glue onto sock in a curve shape like real horse's ears. Cut short lengths of yarn for mane and forelock; glue along crest of neck. Arrange leather as "reins," either tying them or hot-gluing them into a loop. Hot-glue "reins" in horse's "mouth" and around "neck." 

 

            Now comes the real fun:

 

            Put on a puppet show!

 

            Keeping in mind what characters you made, brainstorm a plot, setting, and the basics of a script.

 

If you're lucky, you will have a puppet theatre available to you, complete with a curtain. If not, then you'll have to come up with a way to hide the fact that you human beings are animating the puppets - pronounced "ANN-ih-mate-ing," which means "bringing them alive."

 

One idea is to carefully pull a table over on its side and hide behind the table as you lift the puppet characters up over the top edge to perform.

 

Then perform your play for an audience. Make sure everyone can be heard clearly! And have fun!