DIY puppet theater

Theater is a magical world, which is based on an action that is understandable and close to children, such as a game. The sooner a child gets acquainted with the theatrical art, which can quietly teach and develop, the richer his emotions will be.

You can bring a child to the theater for the first time at the age of 2-3 years. And then make interesting crafts on the theme of “theater” and play at home or in kindergarten. All kids like theatrical play.

Important! Schoolchildren will be able to better understand what they saw during the performance if after the performance they make a craft with their own hands and try to reflect their experiences in it.

Is it difficult to do

It probably sounds a little scary: make a puppet theater! But in reality there is nothing complicated here. Most of us attended kindergartens in our early childhood.

It was mandatory for any group to have a theater area, and, of course, the dolls were made by the teachers themselves. Now this process has become much easier. It is enough to look at various photos of a do-it-yourself puppet theater on the Internet, and immediately, firstly, it will become clear that making the scenery is not at all difficult, and, secondly, you will probably want to get to work as soon as possible. Making puppet theater with a child is very interesting.

Shadow play

One of the famous and interesting types of puppet theater. The main focus is on the silhouettes of the dolls, so the main challenge is to make the characters recognizable through their outlines.

A short master class on creating crafts related to shadow theater will help you organize an exciting performance at home.

Plot-script

For the plot, it is very convenient to choose the famous Russian fairy tales “Teremok”, “Kolobok”, “Masha and the Bear”. The main characters are animals. animal puppets for a puppet theater with your own hands : on the Internet you can easily find a large number of patterns, both simple and complex. Or you can use soft toys such as a fox, a hare, a bear as animal dolls.

Russian fairy tales are very fertile material for production. The characters are simple and understandable, and the repetitions in the plot that fill fairy tales contribute to the development of memory in children and promote the development of speech. In addition, these fairy tales are well known to parents, so creating a performance based on them will not be difficult.

Non-standard theater

In addition to standard and popular children's crafts, you can arrange your own performance using non-standard materials.

An original solution would be disposable utensils made of plastic or wood, in particular spoons. Selected characters are pasted or drawn on them, and decorated as desired. By the way, it is better to use acrylic paints for painting.

Yogurt jars, as well as plastic bottles of interesting and unusual shapes. They, like dishes, can be painted or covered with colored paper. In addition, you can make mini-scenes with decorations from bottles and arrange small stories there.

Making a curtain

In addition to dolls, children really like the screen-curtain in the theater. If children have attended a real theater performance, then they take the movement of the curtain very seriously. The curtain seems to fascinate the children. Therefore, in a home theater it is simply impossible to do without it. a screen for a puppet theater with your own hands is simple: just pull 2 panels of fabric onto a suitable rope, elastic band or braid.

Sheets of thick paper can serve as a screen. They can be brightly decorated by writing the name of the fairy tale-play in bright letters. You can be sure that the process of opening and closing the curtain itself will become an exciting game for the child. It is important at this moment not to forget about the performance itself.

Recommendations for dramatizations

The age of children who go to kindergarten places special demands on the action itself. For a theatrical performance, it is recommended to choose simple, uncomplicated plots that are nevertheless capable of teaching important life things. Gradually, the repertoire can be increased, while periodically returning to already staged performances. The peculiarity of children is that they quickly get tired and stop paying attention to some subject. This means that the duration of the performance should not exceed 10-15 minutes. Additionally, you can use musical accompaniment.

A puppet theater in a kindergarten will help not only to reveal the talents of each child, but also to unite the team. And not only at the stage of staging fairy tales, but also in the process of making dolls. The children will definitely be delighted and will definitely not forget the emotions they felt at these moments.

Originally posted 2018-08-29 10:54:40.

Scenery

For decorations, you can use familiar children's toys: doll furniture, children's dishes. It’s not at all difficult to choose suitable decorations for common plots.

For the fairy tale “Teremok”, you can make a house out of cardboard: windows are cut out in a rectangular sheet, decorated with small curtains, and a triangular roof is cut out on top. For the fairy tale “Kolobok”, it is enough to make 2-3 trees, and the main character will travel through this mini-forest.

Decoration and background

Prepare in advance a diagram according to which the scene will be created in the future.
The cut out elements are sewn onto the front side of a thick sheet of A4 felt.
The next step is to sew together 2 sheets: a blank with decor and a felt backdrop.
Cardboard is inserted between two fabric sheets for compaction. It should protrude a few centimeters. This strip is folded to form a stand.

The main characters made of fabric

There are a lot of patterns on the Internet for do-it-yourself felt puppet theater . This material is dense, holds its shape well, has bright saturated colors, its edges do not fray or crumble. It is enough to print the patterns on paper, then cut out the blanks using the patterns and sew them by hand.

Such dolls can be put on your hand, or you can attach them to at least a pencil and move them behind a prepared screen. For production, you can use other fabrics, even their remains, segments, pieces - everything that household mothers are “rich in” can be put into action.

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Making paper dolls

It's easy to make a paper puppet theater with your own hands . The hero dolls are made using the origami technique from bright thick sheets that match the color. You can also make figures using the applique technique. DIY puppet theater templates are very easy to find. To work, you will need additional materials and accessories that are likely to be found in every home:

scissors;
glue;
colored paper;
cardboard;
buttons and beads for decoration;
thread, needle.

To create a theater you will need a box with sides up to 10 cm high. A cookie box will do. We cover the box with colored paper using double-sided tape.

Let's start creating the curtain. The width of the curtain can be from 3 to 5 cm, the length is the size of the box. On a sheet of red velvet paper, measure the width of the curtain twice and cut off a strip. Then fold it in half, draw the outline of the curtains and cut it out. We cut the finished part along the central fold. We draw folds that imitate the drapery of a curtain with a felt-tip pen. Glue the curtain along the edges of the box.

Then we make a lambrequin. Measure 2 cm in width, draw an outline and cut it out. We measure the length of the lambrequin using the box. We cut it out, draw draperies, and glue it on top of the curtain.

Using a stationery knife, we make a slit up to 1 cm wide on the side of the box, through which the decorations will change.

Backdrops for decorations can be printed or drawn by hand. The size of the pictures must be adjusted to the internal size of the box. If the backgrounds are composed during the course of a fairy tale or play, their change will create the impression of a real theatrical action.

To make the characters you will need juice straws, double-sided tape and printed images of the characters. We fix the cut out figures on the tubes. All is ready! The show can begin.

Finger Theater

Finger theater is very simple and accessible, but no less interesting: figurines of characters, often just heads, are made miniature and put on the fingers.

You can play this “theater” outside the home, on a trip, at a clinic appointment: the child will spend time educationally and usefully.

Felt finger puppets

Here we will talk about felt crafts for elementary school on the theme of theater. This dense material will allow you to create many detailed and at the same time simple dolls. They are usually the right size for a finger theater.

To make them you will need:

Felt in several colors
Threads, needle,
Scissors,
Glue,
Paper and cardboard.

Plasticine figures

Children love plasticine very much. Now plasticine is produced with a very good composition and bright, saturated colors. If desired, it will not be difficult to mold the necessary character figures and act out scenes from familiar fairy tales on the table.

It is difficult to overestimate the benefits that such activities bring to children:

Note!

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develop fine motor skills, memory, imagination;
forms coherent speech, teaches retelling;
introduces children to literary works, broadens their horizons, instills love in artistic creativity...

Is all this comparable to spending time in front of a tablet or phone? This is a rhetorical question - the answer is obvious!

It’s strange, but in the modern world, when we have so many helpers around the house and many processes are mechanized and automated, we often don’t have time to play with our own children. Creating a small theater with your own hands will appeal to both children and adults, and who knows, maybe these few hours of time spent with your child will remain in his memory as the best childhood memories.

Magnetic Theater

Such a theater will undoubtedly win the hearts of children and even adults. Therefore, you can try to make it yourself.

Magnetic pictures

Any fairy tale can be drawn on cardboard, painted, and a flat magnet can be glued to the back of the figure. These fairy tales are shown on a magnetic board. In accordance with the narrative, the figures are superimposed, moved, and put aside.

Tabletop Magnet Theater

A magnetic theater made of cardboard is made differently: the prepared figures are held on a cardboard stand, to which iron clips are attached:

The big box is a stage and needs to be decorated.
On the narrator's side, the box should be open so that the magnet can be conveniently moved under the “stage” to move the figures on the stage.
In accordance with the words, the figures move straight, to the side, and turn.
For example, in the fairy tale “Who, the Rooster and the Fox,” the scenery of the cat’s house is displayed on one side, the scenery of the forest on the other, the cat gives instructions to the rooster, turns and goes into the forest to hunt, the fox waits at the house, the figures are double-sided, with a muzzle on one side cat, with a tail on the other side.

Such unusual actions arouse curiosity in children; they are interested in both the fairy tale and the properties of the magnet, and want to participate in the performance themselves.