Library chick confession: I hate origami.
There, I said it.
My library friends are always recommending origami as a great passive craft but there is nothing passive about folding and manipulating paper into animal shapes. I *want* to like origami but origami doesn’t always like me but at this point I was out of ideas for my activity.
What to do when looking for an easy activity to accompany storytime?
An easy frog puppet made with paper!
For our frog storytime we used these picture books:
Oh No! by Candace Fleming
I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric Kimmel
Green Wilma by Tedd Arnold
Jump, Frog, Jump by Robert Kalan
There were also a few books available for checkout:
Fribbity Ribbit! by Suzanne C. Johnson
A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson
After reading our books, pretending we were frogs and singing a few frog finger plays. we created an easy puppet that children and families could use for retelling at home.
Easy Frog Puppet Craft
Materials
- A sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 inch construction paper
- Crayons or markers to decorate
- Glue sticks
- scraps of paper
Step 1:
Fold your paper in three equal parts, “the long way” or horizontally.
Step 2
Fold your paper in half
Step 3
Fold your paper into an “M” shape by folding the corners towards the middle.
View from the side
View from the top
View from the side
Step 4
Decorate your puppet as you like and now you’re ready to act out your favorite frog story!
This was the first “craft” I had done with storytime in a while. I found that craft time was not fun for anyone, including me. The families would be frustrated that they could not do the activity (I can be a bit ambitious with my selections) and trying to direct everyone in creating their craft is like that dinosaur meme that’s been floating around on Facebook. I took a page from the blogs that I follow and have since done a step by step of the process of creating the craft for the people who prefer more instruction and there is also the option for people to freestyle their creations.
Feedback from the families who attended was positive and I realized that simple is fine and that fun should be the goal of the activity. With my summer programs coming up I plan to use this puppet activity again with other themes. Follow me on Instagram to see what we come up with!
r’s note: Affiliate links are used in this post. If you click on the link and make a purchase, I get a small commission. The above books have been read and loved and shared and are recommended for you and your favorite young reader.
I, too, am craft-averse and discovered, just as you, that simple is fine…and much more fun. Once set up an intricate craft program titled “Dragons and Knights Don’t Have to Have Fights” to supplement a story time about Peace. The craft had multiple parts: a paper helmet with movable mouth guard and a paper dragon with movable tail and head. Each part involved tracing, cutting, and pinning the movable parts with brads. The only thing that saved the activity was the number of parents that attended (usually very few parents attend) and their determination to see it through. The kids gave up because of the skill level (high) required and the time spent went from 1 hour to 3. The dragons and helmets that were created were quite nice, but the majority of those who attended walked away frustrated. Lesson learned.
Appreciate your list of titles for the story time and really like the idea of books available for check out.
What a super easy but fun craft to get the kids engaged this summer. you could do a whole frog theme from the library.