A Guide to Creating Horse Finger Puppets

"Mom, I'm bored. There's nothing to do." How many times do we mothers hear those words? Sometimes the kids will say they're bored just because we won't let them play video games more than two hours at a time or because we've turned the cartoons and the tween drama television shows off. There are times we're tempted to put the kids to work when they say they're bored just because we get tired of hearing them complain when we want to encourage them to think for themselves and find their own activities. But kids today, what with all the technology available to them, are going to need guidance to find low or no-tech crafts and hobbies that they will enjoy doing, once you have introduced them to it.

Different types of crafts are good activities for kids. Making and creating craft items can not only be a lot of fun but it can also help kids with their eye/hand coordination, creative thinking and problem solving abilities. Plus, kids can create crafts not just for themselves, but to use for puppet shows or plays and to give as gifts. Parents and grandparents appreciate gifts that their kids make for them. I know I certainly do!

If you have a horse lover among your children, introducing them to crafts will be easy. Just tell them they can make something to do with horses. One horse themed kids craft idea is to make horse finger puppets. Horse finger puppets can be created out of different things such as paper, felt or foam pieces. Once they're created, horse finger puppets can be used to put on a small play for the family or for the simple enjoyment of the horse-loving child.

Easy Horse Finger Puppets

Materials Needed: paper, felt or foam pieces; scissors; glue; yarn (optional); small round stickers (optional); colored markers for paper or fabric; googly eyes.

One of the easiest ways to create a horse finger puppet is to take two pieces of paper, felt or foam and cut them both the same size and shape; finger-shaped (short tube-like) with a rounded top. Make both pieces a little larger than the finger they will be used on because you will need to glue all the edges together. Don't glue the straight-edge bottom where the finger will go in or you will not end up with a finger puppet!

Once the basic horse body shape is glued together, you can add the details to turn it into a horse. You can use different methods to add a horse face to your basic horse finger puppet body. Use a piece of paper, felt or foam to cut out a horse head shape which you can then glue near the top of the body shape. Cut out ears and glue them on, add a yarn mane, use the colored markers to add details such as nostrils, eyes (or glue on googly eyes) and a mouth and you have an easy horse finger puppet.

When you create horse finger puppets using this simple method, you can mix mediums. By that I mean you can create your horse finger puppet using a foam body and then add stickers and paper cut out shapes, for example, to add the details to your horse finger puppet. Your horse finger puppet can have a mane made from a foam cut-out, for example, even if your horse puppet body is made from paper or felt. The only limit is to your imagination!

Rubber Glove Horse Finger Puppets

Materials Needed: Rubber glove (adult size); small round stickers (any horse color); felt pen; googly eyes (optional); yarn or construction paper; glue; scissors.

Another way to create a horse finger puppet is to use rubber gloves. Use the type that is used for difficult cleaning jobs. You can either leave the glove intact to create your horse finger puppets out of each finger which will give you an entire herd of five horse finger puppets that are connected or you can cut the tips of the gloves off and make the horse finger puppets with the individual glove finger tips. Use a round sticker as a muzzle for your horse finger puppet. Draw two nostrils and perhaps a mouth. Place sticker muzzle on glove finger tip. Make ears out of one round sticker that is cut into two thin rounded shapes with a point at the top. Place at top of glove finger tip. Use your felt pen to draw eyes on your horse or place two googly eyes on your glove finger tip. Once you have your ears, eyes and muzzle in place, add yarn for the horse's mane. You can also create the look of a mane by using a piece of construction paper cut in a long thin piece with fringed edges that you glue into place.

Modeling Clay Horse Finger Puppets

Materials needed: modeling clay; paint and a paint brush.

You can create horse finger puppets by using modeling clay. Have your child shape the dough into a horse shape and make a hole in the bottom to put their finger into. Let it dry completely; paint it any color you want, add eyes, hoof color etc. and you have a horse finger puppet sculpture.

Fabric or Yarn Glove Horse Finger Puppets

Materials needed: fabric or a yarn glove; pom pom balls; googly eyes; thread; needles; scissors; black fabric puff paint.

To create horse finger puppets from fabric or from a yarn glove, you will need to have some rudimentary sewing skills. It can be sewn by hand with just a needle and thread so this craft might be good for older kids who wish to learn some simple sewing skills.

For a fabric horse finger puppet, choose a fabric for your horse body. You will basically be following the same steps for making an easy horse finger puppet made with glue that I have listed in this article but you will be using fabric and sewing it together. Cut out your two pieces of fabric in a long tube shape to the size of your finger and make sure to cut it larger so you can have the fabric inside out to sew a seam all the way around the shape. Leave the bottom open for your finger. Once your two pieces are sewn together, turn them right side out. Cut out two small round pieces of fabric for ears. Ears made from felt will work well. Fold each small round circle in half and sew it at the bottom fold to the top of the horse body's head. Do this again for the other ear. Cut out a felt horse head shape and then sew a pom pom ball to the muzzle area. Cut a piece of fabric for the mane, felt will also work for this. You can fringe the edges and it will not unravel as regular fabric will. Sew the mane to the horse. You can sew "eyes" for your horse or you can glue on googly eyes or you can even use black fabric puff paint for the eyes and the nostrils on the pom pom muzzle.

To create horse finger puppets with a yarn glove, you can follow the same hand sewing method I have listed above. If you can knit or crochet, you can use that method but I am unable to give instructions for it because I have no experience with either knitting or crocheting.

Once your child has created an entire herd of horse finger puppets, they can put on a puppet show or play. They can even create a stage using a large cardboard box and glue and construction paper. Flashlights can be used as spotlights on the horse star of the show.

Children can write and perform their own shows or plays. To get horse themed ideas for your horse finger puppets to star in, check out horse books at your local library. To help get you started, here are a few titles of some of my favorite horse books Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry; The Black Stallion by Walter Farley; Billy and Blaze series by C. W. Anderson; Black Beauty by Anna Sewell; Fritz and the Beautiful Horses by Jan Brett and The Mystery of Pony Hollow by Lynn Hall. There are also several horse series such as the Saddle Club; Pony Pals and Thoroughbred series.

Sources:

Disney Family Fun.