Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Dragonfly finger puppets

I spent a long time looking for dragonfly finger puppets to use in my upcoming residency for 2nd graders (age 7-8, for those of you outside the US). Folkmanis has one. I ordered this for myself, but I'm disappointed--the wings on each side are on top of each other and the eyes are too far apart. I tried a kirigami dragonfly pop-up card. It was pretty, but not what I needed.

Nothing for it. I was going to have to make one up myself. I started playing with a pipecleaner (now called chenille stems in the craft stores), wire-edged ribbon and beads. Here's what I came up with.


Here are a few of them in their, umm, wetland habitat (ignore that sofa in the background!)
One benefit of these finger puppets is that the kids can make them before I arrive for the first residency session. I was thrilled when the teachers offered to do that. Another benefit is that they're quite inexpensive to make--I bought supplies for about 175 of them for under $15.

6 comments:

Professional Storyteller Rachel Hedman said...

Dear Priscilla:

I'm glad you figured out something for your dragonfly finger puppets. When you first posted your quest, I wondered how you would capture the beauty of those fine creatures.

I love the touch of the ribbon as it has a translucent quality that brings a bit of magic.

So originally you were going to make the creatures with the kids? This saves you more time since the teachers will have them made. How much time do you think it spared you to do other activities with the kids?

Until we tell again,

Rachel Hedman

Unknown said...

Those dragonflies are wonderful!

PriscillaHowe said...

No, I was never planning to make the finger puppets with kids--I knew that would take too much time, and the point of the residency wasn't a make-and-take craft. I figured I'd have to make a set to use over and over again with different kids.

Still, this saves a good bit of time on my end.

Liz Warren said...

These are adorable! I think it's great that the kids will make them before you get there. What a great way to build anticipation.

Granny Sue said...

Cute! and cheap--both good qualities.

And about that fridge: in some ways we're a bit alike, ya know...do our fridge's know each other?

PriscillaHowe said...

Scary thought on the iceboxes--who knows what they know? I'm off to open mine, to see what kind of supper will magically appear.