Here is a little autumn story poem for autumn harvest days. I make apple finger puppets to help make this visual. Just draw a small fingertip size apple – cut 2 out with red felt, add a brown stem and green leaf…easy! Sew around it, leaving room for your finger at the bottom. This one is so easy you can make many!! You will need 3 apple finger puppets for this puppet poem story.
One little apple hanging on a tree,
It fell down and bumped my knee!
Another little apple as rosy as a rose,
It fell down and bumped my nose!
Another little apple, ripe and sweet,
It fell down and bumped my feet!
It rolled and rolled nearly to my house,
Where it was spotted by a tiny little mouse.
“This yummy apple will make a fine meal,”
And he munch munch munched it, even the peel.
This is fun and silly, worthy of a giggle from the children sitting around you. A good welcome to fall… After the children have seen it a few times I pass out apple finger puppets for all the children, so they can join in with me. We have also rolled red wool in our warm palms to pre-felt and shape little red apples, which we have used with this poem and other apple stories, as well as enjoyed in our play kitchen!
We also make simple wet felted mice by wrapping gray wool around our pointer finger, and dip it in warm soapy water. We rub a dub dub it until it felts snug and felted over our fingers. We rinse it in cool clean water with a drop or two of vinegar in it to help get the soap out. Put all the little mice out in the sun to dry….finger holes open. Glue on felt ears and a yarn tail….there are the mice for the apple poem!
Set this up with green silk as your lap or floor stage…the silk can cover the ‘apple’ as the mouse eats it all up.
Finger puppets are wonderful for children. Make them for all the fingers! Nimble fingers are indicators of clear speech. Finger movements are centered in the same part of the brain as speech. What a joyful support and language tool for the young child’s developing language, helping our little ones find form in their speech. Finger Puppets are terrific!
You can get more simple finger puppet presentation ideas from our Finger Puppet Book – http://junipertreepuppets.com/book/ – Bring richness of language and the support of the visual puppet to the children!
from Suzanne Down
Suzanne Down is the Director of the Rocky Mountain LifeWays training in Boulder, CO. She is also the founder of Juniper Tree Puppets and offers workshops and puppetry trainings.