A Year's Worth of Finger Puppets

         Today I got THE MOST AMAZING package in the mail from Cheryl at Crack of Dawn Crafts.  A couple months ago, Jenn, from Finally in First, wrote about a set of finger puppets she had received from Cheryl. I immediately went to Cheryl's website and fell in love with her.  She blogs about the puppets she makes for her sons' classes and about the elaborate birthday parties she has had for her sons (with puppet party favors).  I felt an immediate bond with Cheryl because when my kids were younger I always loved planning fun, special birthday parties for them.  I was also so inspired by the fact that Cheryl put the patterns for all of her puppets on her blog so that anyone can make her adorable puppets.

          Since we were in the middle of our Fairy Tale Unit, we had dress-up clothes including a dragon costume that my class loved.  The fairy tale unit inspired us to write a class book about Alvin, the Dragon.  I decided to try my hand at making Cheryl's dragon puppet for each child. As you can see from above...they were adorable.
           My class loved them! I sent Cheryl pictures and thanked her for inspiring the book.
Cheryl has been incredibly supportive, not only of my beginning efforts to make finger puppets, but also as I started this blog. When my computer was stolen, Cheryl suggested that a couple of puppets might cheer me up (she certainly knows me :)

             I think that I will be able to plan my entire year around my new puppets. I will use them to introduce our special programs:

Kelso the Frog - The program I use for conflict resolution.

A Kangaroo and Joey for Fairy Dust Teaching's Safe Pocket System (behavior  management system)

  And as we talk about and celebrate each holiday:

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Christmas

Martin Luther King Day

St. Patrick's Day

Groundhog Day (the groundhog goes up and down!)

Easter/ Spring

I will also use them for my special units:

4th of July

For my dinosaur unit.

For community helper unit

And with my favorite books:

The Kissing Hand

Splat the Cat

Penguin Pete

What is really amazing about Cheryl's site is that in addition to simple patterns and very clear directions, she also always lists children's books that coordinate with the puppets.  I can't begin to express how inspired I am by Cheryl's talent and generosity.

Please go check out Crack of Dawn Crafts.