How to create a no-sew sock puppet

If you’re looking for a craft or activity to keep your kids busy and entertained today without relying on screens, why not try making a no-sew sock puppet?

Aside from being fun to play with, puppets can benefit your child in so many ways:

• Playing with puppets encourages movement, which helps to improve fine motor skills.
• Creating puppets and puppet shows are two ways to stimulate the imagination.
• Through oral speaking, puppets can help to improve communication and language skills.
• Role-playing allows children to learn how to act and behave around other children and adults.
• Children can use puppets to create stories and imaginative solutions to problems.
• Puppets give children the confidence to read or speak out loud.

What you need

• A sock
• Buttons or googly eyes
• Felt
• Pom Pom
• Yarn
• Marker
• Scissors
• Craft glue

How to make it

1. First, decide where you want the puppet’s eyes to be. Have your child put their hand inside the puppet (fingers in the toes and thumb in the heel). Mark the location of the eyes with a marker.
2. Begin by creating the puppet’s mouth. Spread the bottom of the sock out facing up on a table or work surface.
3. Cut an oval shape from felt about the same size as the sock sole. Apply glue to the oval’s outer edge and a few dabs in the centre.
4. Flip the sock over and stick on the eyes. You can use googly eyes for your puppet, buttons, or cut circles out of felt.
5. Glue the pompom nose to the sock puppet. If you don’t have a pompom, simply cut out a piece of felt, or you can use a bottle cap.
6. To make hair, use a scissor to cut strips of yarn. Glue the yarn to the top of the puppet’s head and stack it in the glue.
7. Allow the glue to dry.
8. While the glue dries, you and your child can make a puppet theatre from a cardboard box. Alternatively, decorate a tri-fold display board and place it on a small table. To perform the puppet show, simply drape a sheet or tablecloth across a table and hide behind it.

Good to know: This is a simple sock puppet, but your child can create an infinite number of puppets using different supplies. You can help your child make a monster, giraffe, cat, doll, dragon, horse, and ballerina puppet, to name a few.