Printable farm animal puppets will be sure to give a new twist to familiar songs and nursery rhymes for kids!
In our day and age, what significance do farm animals even hold for children?
In fact, not so little. They’re still important characters of many new picture books, not to mention all the traditional songs and poems. After all, there is hardly a child who cannot bellow, “Old MacDonald had a farm! E-I-E-I-O!” My son and daughter do that one all the time.
Singing is easy to transform into a full theatrical act if only you thrust a few farm animal puppets into their hands. Suddenly, there is a performance happening in the room. And who knows where it can lead…
Maybe kids will remember all the possible combination of songs and poems that feature farm animals?
Maybe they will progress into open-ended play and spin a story or two about life on the farm?
Maybe they will find it interesting to learn about light and experiment with the scale of shadows?
There are so many ways to play with shadow puppets!
Printable Farm Animal Puppets Feature
The printable set includes a silhouette of a barn (that can be used in the background or scaled up by holding it closer to the light) as well as puppets of a farmer man, a woman, a little girl, a cow, a sheep, a donkey, a pig, a rooster, a hen, a dog, a cat, a mouse, and a piece of cheese.
What songs or poems can you do with these shadow puppets?
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm
- The Farmer in the Dell
- Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Baa Baa Black Sheep (just do “a girl” instead of “a boy”)
- Little Bo Peep
- Little Boy Blue
Or have an open-ended storytelling experience, based around the farm theme.
Shadow Puppet Play
So, how to organize a shadow puppet play? It’s quite simple.
A flashlight is enough for a start. Just point the flashlight at the puppet and let it cast shadows on the walls. You can have a bit of shadow puppet play before bedtime every now and again and tell stories with puppets.
If you want to have a proper theatrical performance, add a simple cardboard puppet theatre or invest some time into building a sturdy vintage-inspired theatre from wood. It would be surprisingly easy to organize enchanting performances at home for friends and family behind a screen of parchment paper!
How to Make Shadow Puppets
You can get printable farm animal puppets and cut them out yourself or you can order a farm animal puppet set from us that has already been cut, and we will ship it to you.
If you want to cut the shadow puppets yourself, there are several ways you could go about it. Read a detailed post with a video about it here.
In short, you can cut the shadow puppet patterns using traditional tools (scissors and a hobby knife) or using silhouette cutting machines (Silhouette or Cricut). The first takes longer, but doesn’t require any special tools at all. The second is very easy and fast, but requires an investment in a specialized machine. Our designs for shadow puppets are saved in PNG format, so that they can be used for either method.
Get the Printable Shadow Puppets!
or
Buy the Shadow Puppets Already Cut!
If you have a shadow puppet show, do share your photos with us! We love seeing them. You can post them on our Facebook page, email me or tag us on Facebook or Instagram – @adventureinabox!
More Shadow Puppets
Check out our collection of printable shadow puppets, or order one of the shadow puppet sets that have already been cut!
Little Red Riding Hood: Shadow Puppets
These shadow puppets will let your kids make their version of Little Red Riding Hood and stage a shadow play at home or in the classroom!
Nursery Rhymes: Shadow Puppets
Use these printable shadow puppets to stage a shadow puppet play for children, based on nursery rhymes - Little Miss Muffet, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Itsy Bitsy Spiders, and others!
Beauty and the Beast: Shadow Puppets
Inspired by the Beauty and the Beast fairy-tale, these printable shadow puppets will let the kids tell their version of the “tale as old as time.
Butterflies: Colourful Shadow Puppets
Learn an easy way to make colourful shadow puppets with kids! Making a set of vibrant butterfly shadow puppets and playing with light and shadows will be a great nature STEM project.
Moon Festival: Shadow Puppets
Celebrate the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival by staging a shadow puppet show based on the Chinese Moon legend that explains the origins and traditions of the festival.
Town Mouse and Country Mouse: Shadow Puppets
Using these printable shadow puppets, you can stage a shadow puppet play, based on the popular fairy-tale The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse!
Social Stories with Shadow Puppets
Prepare children for new social experiences, such as by making social stories and acting them out with shadow puppets!
