Written by Tara Strade, Angelique Santiago, & Miriam Monfiston
materials:
Used socks
Googly eyes or buttons
Colored felt and other fabrics
Markers
Scissors
Hot glue
Pipe cleaners
Colored string or twine
length:
Set Up: 20 minutes
Activity: 15-30 minutes (varied)
academic subject(s):
English Language Arts
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.2: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.3: Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric
This special “Sanity Saver” blog entry is based on the Living Lab project originally planned to be implemented with our visitors in Spring of 2020.
The Living Lab is a collaborative project between UB’s Early Childhood Research Center (ECRC) and Explore & More – The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Children’s Museum. The Living Lab is designed to bring child development research and knowledge directly to you through play-like experiments with your child! In each of the Living Lab sessions, UB graduate student researchers would engage your child in a brief and play-like experiment based on cutting-edge research. They would then explain to you the purpose of the experiment and why it is important. In addition, they would provide some fun activities and ideas for you to try at home to facilitate your child’s learning and development.
Since all in-person activities are on hold the ECRC and E&M partnered together to still be able to reach you in your living room! The UB student researchers have created fun and engaging activities based on their research experiments. We hope you will try them out.
As Explore & More’s community partner, ECRC also welcomes you to check out its online resources and activities for young children (ages 2-6) and their parents and caregivers: https://www.facebook.com/EarlyChildhoodResearchCenter.
Role playing with puppets is an easy way to address issues like telling the truth, as it invites the child to think critically about the situation and how they would resolve it from a neutral perspective. One example with these puppets is to have them say various promises like, “I will help you put away your toys” or “I will sing a song for you” and have the puppet perform what he said he would. Then use another puppet to do the opposite – what happens when they say they will do something, but they don’t do it? Not only is this a fun activity for kids to make the puppets, but these sock friends can be used to address a variety of scenarios calmly and collaboratively.
directions:
There are lots of ways to make sock puppets.
Step 1 – A basic sock puppet begins with an old sock – it can be any color, preferably one that is longer.
Step 2 – Kids can choose either buttons or googly eyes, or any other round object to hot glue to the top of the sock, on top of where the foot would be.
Step 3 – At the toes, where the fingers come to a point, a child can use felt to create a top lip or can use a marker to draw the mouth.
Step 4 – The child can then choose either string or twine to create a funky hairstyle for their new friend.
Step 5 – Finally, the child can use various crafting materials to provide the sock puppet an outfit. Allow them to be creative!
vocabulary words
Puppet: a doll (person or animal) that is moved by a hand, wire, or string
Role Play: an activity where people do and say things while pretending to be someone else; acting
Honesty: the quality of being sincere or truthful
Integrity: doing the right thing, even when no one is watching
Responsibility: to be accountable for something in one’s control/ to have a job to take care of something
