Puppet Families!

The Ladybugs love family! Over the past few weeks, we have observed that the Ladybugs
frequently incorporate family and family life into their play. Whether they’re building families
with the animal toys or role playing as a mom, dad or sibling, family seems to be a central
theme in their play.

Last week, we read a story called, “The Family Book” by Todd Parr, to spark a discussion about how families can look very different from one family to the next, and more importantly that it's ok to be different! While we were reading the book, the Ladybugs all came to the conclusion that family is family and it doesn’t matter what a family looks like as long as everyone loves and cares about each other.

After listening to the story, the Ladybugs had the opportunity to create their own real life family
or imaginary family out of popsicle stick puppets! To create their puppets, the ladybugs used
scissors to cut shapes out of construction paper, designed their family’s faces with markers and
googly eyes, and glued a popsicle stick to the back of their creations.

One child made a family of Emojis that represented each family member!
Another child traced her hand and created a butterfly family!

Once the Ladybugs were finished making their puppets, I suggested that they could perform in
a puppet show! The Ladybugs seemed super excited about prospect and the children came up with a plan for what this would look like. One child suggested they make popcorn out of paper and admission tickets for the audience so everyone could be involved!

We prepared for the puppet show by dimming the lights, setting up chairs and covering the
puppet stage with blankets. Then we sat back, relaxed and watched the show!

Who would have thought that all of this creativity stemmed from listening to a book about families!
- Vita