Project: Rainy day fun with coloring book puppets

 Being at home over the summer with three kids you really have to start thinking outside of the box when the rain keeps them inside. At least that's the case with my three! So in one of the last posts about coloring-is-the-best-therapy I came up with this little fun project on the fly! Figured we'd give it a go, and I'm SO glad we did. It kept the girls busy for some time (which makes this mama VERY happy) and it tapped into another talent they never knew they had…storytelling.

What you'll need:
Assorted coloring books
Crayons
Markers
Construction paper
Scissors
Glue
Popsicle sticks

They colored for hours! I was thrilled!

Go ahead and cut out around your characters of choice, and mount them on construction paper with the glue. The construction paper gives it a little bit more stiffness so they characters don't flop around as much. Let it set a while, then go ahead and cut around the colored images. We left a little bit of the construction paper visible in order to let the image pop off the paper.

Here's a finished popsicle puppet. The girls must have colored, decorated, glued, and mounted about 20 of these puppets. Enough to come up with some crazy stories!

Once we were all set, I pulled a chair from downstairs, threw a blanket over the top of it so we had a "stage" for their puppet show, and off they went! Stories galore! 

When they were done we put them in a shoe box for safe keeping, and they will be ready next time we have a rainy day when they complain they are bored. The stories are endless, the time spent with family is priceless, and they are able to stretch their imaginations to new heights. I say that's a win-win.

Happy puppet making to you all!