Finger Puppet Giveaway

As my children have been singing the Finger Plays a lot this, especially in the car, I thought that it would be fun to find some finger puppets to giveaway this week.  As I looked at the different finger puppets on Amazon, these crotchet puppets caught my eye.  They are fair trade, hand-made in Peru.  My friend made us a few crotchet finger puppets a few years ago and my children have really loved them.  They are great quiet-bag activities because they are small and soft.  So much imaginative play can come from these little puppets!  We have washed ours a few times in the washing machine and let them air dry with good results.

The giveaway consists of 25 finger puppets of varying assortment.  Some of the reviewers had variety, some had a few duplicates, and some got a few that were made to look like specific characters such as Hello Kitty or Elmo, although most were generic.  I love that the puppets are fair trade and homemade.  They should be fun!

"What a child imitates, he begins to understand." -Froebel

The value of imitation.

I have really enjoyed studying Froebel and his educational theories.  While most have never heard of Froebel himself, they have heard of "Kindergarten", which Froebel invented.  The name means "Child Garden".  Froebel envisioned each child as a unique flower in a garden, wishing for every child to be able to bloom and flourish in his or her own time, given the right environment to thrive.  His "Mother Play" songs included imitation, hand signs and imaginative play for children to do while they imitated activities that would have been familiar to them.  Feeding chickens, rocking a baby, the wind, and so on. 

It was in that spirit that Emilie Poulsson created the Finger Plays we have covered the last few weeks, which you can watch on our YouTube channel and download online here.  We also have color-coded sheet music and a few activities in our members area.

Puppets and dress up clothes are a great tools to enhance and encourage imitative play, as are most toys.  There are actually many different finger puppet sets on amazon, many less $10.  I hope this giveaway has given you a few ideas on how to enhance imitative play for the children in your care.  Thanks for reading and good luck!