A puppet for every age and every need…

Let’s call them old-fashioned toys or traditional toys but puppets can’t be beaten. Puppets are so simple, easy to use, are so much fun and last forever. They do not require batteries!
Puppets are a wonderful teaching way to encourage children’s motor and coordination skills, communication abilities and self-confidence. It’s an open door to let imagination run wild. Puppets are also used for therapy and help express emotions, deal with stressful situations. We have an interesting podcast on this with a child psychologist and play therapist who explain how she uses puppets for therapy, see this link.

What’s great about puppets is that they are made for different age groups, so there is a puppet for everyone and for every need!

My First Puppets

My 1st Puppets is a range of puppets suitable from birth as they can be used as a cuddly soft toy for sleeptime. They also have design features that appeal to little ones straight away like big eyes, a big head or a soft and cuddly body.

Hand Puppet of a Brown Bear with light brown tummy, ears and nose. Moving arms and head.

Hand Puppet of a Brown Lamb with white body. Moving arms and head.

 

Hand Puppet of a Brown Dog with white tummy and bown body. Moving arms and head.

Finger Puppets

Most finger puppets are suitable from 12 months and what is nice about them is their size which allows young children to control them with their little fingers. They are big and soft and can stand on their own, which means it’s also a fun toy to use. Most of our animal finger puppet come with an elasticated system inside them which allows it to hold on nice and tight to an adult’s finger.
There are a huge amount of finger puppets styles, individual finger puppets, mostly animal ones, story sets which include a main character hand puppet and a set of finger puppets, like Little Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf and 3 Little Pigs, and bath finger puppets!
There is so much choice in finger puppets so you can choose the character or characters based on your child’s interest, for example a dinosaur, a goat, Humpty Dumpty or an alien! Finger puppets are ideal to accompany a book.

Finger Puppet of a seagull with yellow feet and beak, white body and blue wings.

Finger Puppet shaped like an egg for Humpty Dumpty, with red hat, checkered pants and dangling arms and legs.

 

Finger Puppet of a clown Fish with orange and white body and fins.

Hand Puppets

Another puppet category that has loads of styles! Animals, people, fairytale characters, monsters, super large animals and people.
Hand puppets really suit different age groups and are a good way to play and interact with children of any age. Whether it is for a storytelling session or help develop speech, imagination, creativity, and hand-eye coordination. Indeed hand puppets are designed to be used by children and adults. So if you are trying to decide what hand puppet to choose from, it is good to see what characters the child is interesting in.
Hand puppets that are mouth-moving allow to explore creative play and social interaction even further.

Monster Puppets

Monsters are a very popular category of puppets, probably because they are so friendly looking! They all have big expressive eyes and some of them even have teeth. They can be good to engage conversations with children or allow them to use the monster puppet to overcome their fears.

Yellow soft Hand Puppet with 6 red legs.

Large Circle Orange Hand Puppet with moving arms. Orange hair and mouth moving.

Hairy Hand puppet, body covered in bown hair, with pink arms, legs and nose.

Sesame Street Puppet Range

Sesame Street characters appeal to all children and adults! They come in various size and up to 65 cm. The super large ones are mouth moving and both hands can also be used. Probably for puppets enthusiasts who like to tell stories, encourage interactive play and enjoy unlimited fun!

Hand Puppet of Sesame Street Ernie, with blue traousers, red and blue stripy top and orange face, red nose and black hair.

Red full bodied ahdn pupept of Elmo from sesame Street.

Full bodied Hand Puppet of Bert from Sesame Street.

Plush Puppets

We are delighted to work with Folkmanis® for our range of plush puppets. Widely regarded as the most innovative puppet-maker in the world, Folkmanis® Puppets consistently designs beautifully crafted toys that inspire creativity, promote hands-on discovery, encourage interaction, teach fine and gross motor skills, help develop early language, and become a child’s lovable companion to be treasured for years.
These cuddly creations offer high play value and an appreciation of the natural world.

Green Parrot Hand Pupppet on child's shoulder.

Black Chimapnzee full-bodied Hand Puppet

 

Child playing with a Ferret Hand Puppet, full bodied puppet with dark and light brown fur.
Queries & Feedback on our Puppet Range

If you have any questions about our puppets please be sure to contact us. We love hearing from you at Puppets Ireland and always enjoy receiving questions and enquiries. Contact us.

If you have enjoyed reading this article then why not check out our blog post The benefits of playing with Puppets

A Puppet for Every Age | Puppets Ireland | 2022

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