Paper plate puppets

There are some many things you can do with paper plates and a little imagination, but here's a very simple craft to do. 

M asked if she could draw on the paper plate instead of paper, so obviously I wasn't going too stop her, she sat quietly with her plate and pencil case and concentrated on her drawing, once she had finished she looked up and said "look Louise it's you!" 

She then held it to her face and pretended to talk like me. Then she said "I need a stick...." As she ran off to the art box for a rummage around, she came back with a packet of large lolly sticks. "Can I use these?" she's asked I helped her to stick it onto the back of the paper plate. 

M's brother J found it very funny listening to M pretending to me and instantly wanted to do one for himself, so we all sat there drawing different people and questing who was drawing who, before long We had everyone, M, J, Me, Mummy, Daddy, Granny, Grandad and Big brother O. 

I then explained that we could use them to make a puppet show, I set a small childrens table up on its side and wrote a "puppet show" sign on the white board which I placed at the front, we then arranged chairs, teddies and dolls up in front of the "theatre"

I told M and J they could tell their own stories and I would watch with my teddy and doll friends. They took turns to tell each part of their story which they made up as they went along, Bouncing ideas off each other for the next part of the story. 

For the rest of the afternoon many more stories were told with us all having a go at being the story teller and all being the audience. I loved the way they got to talk about different scenarios and talked about different emotions such as happy, excited miserable and grumpy. 

A great social and communication activity to get children talking and using their imaginations.