Free Printable Finger Puppets For Kids
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Finger puppets are such a great learning through play activity for children of all ages. Not only will the paper puppets keep them busy for a while and inspire creative, imaginative play — but they also provide physical benefits like fine motor skill development too!
What are the benefits of playing with finger puppets?
Puppets can help stimulate creative imaginations
Getting off digital devices and getting back to using “make believe” during play time can be a difficult task nowadays. Finger puppets can be an opportunity for kids to use their imaginations and immerse themselves in worlds created on their own through role play.
As a child plays with puppets, they will begin to make up their own stories and characters — each with their own set of personalities and actions. They will likely naturally experience a range of emotions like happiness, anger, sadness, excitement and more.
This process actually helps develop emotional expression and develops language and storytelling skills.
Finger puppet play helps develop fine motor skills
Beginning with cutting out and then assembling each finger puppet, young children get a chance to work on fine motor skills like using scissors, matching edges and taping or gluing things to together.
Once the puppets are put together, the act of moving each finger independently of each other works on hand-eye coordination and dexterity.
Everything about typical finger puppet play like opening and closing the hand, moving fingers and wrist, twisting and turning, all help to build the muscles that will be needed for handwriting later.
This is why playing with finger puppets for toddlers is such a popular activity!
