Are you and your children stuck at home and looking for a creative project? With so many families staying indoors under self-isolation, I know many parents are looking for fun and educational activities to keep
Blog
Black history
The story of Henry “Box” Brown
An earlier version was published on March 23, 2019 On March 23, 1849, months after his wife and children were sold to a new owner, Henry Brown escaped slavery in Richmond, Virginia in a wooden
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Tricks and Techniques
Riding a horse and wagon
If you want to act out stories from the Underground Railroad or other stories in which puppets need transportation, you may want to use a horse and wagon. In our printable library you will find
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Dutch heritage
Dutch “Speculaas” (spice cookies)
Speculaas and Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) December 5th is one of the most treasured days in the Netherlands, the day that Dutch children get gifts from the red-robed and white-bearded Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas), who arrives from
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Dutch heritage
Skates, Dutch hats, and wooden shoes
Many Americans think that winters in the Netherlands are very cold, and therefore the Dutch do a lot of skating. Maybe famous 17th century paintings like the one above, created during a little “Ice Age”
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Family history
How to make shadow puppets of children using profile silhouettes
As I already wrote in an earlier tutorial, making shadow puppets of family members can be a fun cross-generational activity, keeping children busy during family gatherings with a simple desk-top shadow theater. In this tutorial
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Family history
How to make a wedding cake topper using profile silhouettes
This summer my Dutch-American daughter Sara married the love of her life in a Dutch little castle close to where Ken grew up. Having helped out with shadow puppetry workshops since she was young, Sara
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Family history
How to make shadow puppets of family members
Research shows that sharing family stories is just as important as reading to children and benefits them in multiple ways (see Further Reading). In this tutorial I will show how you can act out family
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How to
Adding a scrolling background to a shadow puppetry screen
In the days when I worked with an overhead projector for shadow puppetry, I used transparent film on a rolling rack to have a moving background for travel. I truly missed this possibility when I starting to
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Black history
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad with shadow puppets
Shadow puppetry is a great tool to engage children with stories from the Underground Railroad–the network of free Blacks, Quakers, and abolitionists who helped people enslaved in the South escape to the North in the