Highbanks Puppet Theater

We finally made it to another preschool class at the local Metro Parks.  They do one once a month, but we had a scheduling conflict with October's class so it has been 2 months since we've been to one.

This class was called a puppet theater.

When we got there, Olivia was allowed to choose an animal to color.  She chose a turtle.

She promptly got to work coloring.

Then they were suppose to cut it out.  Technically this class is for kids ages 3 to 5, but even half of them can't really cut at this point.  I let Olivia hold the scissors and make a few snips, but her hand muscles weren't really strong enough so she lost interest quickly.  I then finished cutting it out for her.

She put the glue on the stick

Then she stuck the turtle onto the stick. (I was a little slow in my picture taking and she had already moved her hand down.)

The finished product!  There is color on there--I promise.  It's just really light and didn't show up with the flash and focus of the picture.

Once you finished your puppet, and while you waited for others to finish, there were two choices.  Read some related books, or color on a big mural on the wall.  Olivia chose the mural.

Finally it was time for the Puppet Theater to begin.  The naturalist played the part of a turkey puppet that didn't like Thanksgiving.  Then each animal came along and explained why they liked Thanksgiving and what they were thankful for.  When the animal puppet matched the puppet that you made, you got to go up front and tell what your puppet was thankful for.

The naturalist also included little facts about the animals along the way.  For example, for the skunk she explained that he had a big bushy tail to help keep him warm during the winter months.

I'm not sure what Olivia said when she was up there.  She whispered it, so the naturalist just sort of made something up for her on the fly.  She was more interested in "petting" the puppets.

The naturalist concluded with some real animal furs to touch and explore, but Olivia had reached her attention span limit so we headed home for lunch.  Hopefully there will be some more fun classes for us to do before baby Logan arrives.