Activity: Share-a-Sock Puppets

The best thing about sharing is that it brings friends together! As children role-play and interact with others, they learn valuable lessons about sharing. Sharing makes time with playmates rewarding and fun!

Materials:

• pair of clean socks
• trim for facial features, hair, ears, etc. (buttons, ribbon, light craft objects that can be glued or sewn on with adult supervision)
• markers
• fabric paint and/or glitter

Directions:
Help you child enjoy this artistic and playful activity with another friend or join in yourself to make fun Share-a-Sock puppets. Begin with a clean pair of socks; the longer the sock, the better. Use the different types of trim to glue or sew on the toe area of the sock for the eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Add paint for freckles, eyelashes, or other expressive features. Pull socks over arms and take turns exchanging riddles, talk in silly voices, or act like Clifford and his friends. Try this catchy riddle one: What did one sock say to other? Quit stepping on my toe!

Take It Further: Encourage your child and a friend to share a favorite book, video, page out of coloring book, or toy with each other. This can be done by helping each child choose which item to share and setting a time that each item will be returned. This is also a great time to talk about being responsible and respecting someone else's property.

With a Group: Invite your child's circle of friends to participate in a toy exchange. For the success of this concept and activity, it is important that each child is able to freely choose a toy, book, video, etc. from home that they are very comfortable in sharing and not playing with while someone else has it for a short time. Gather the toys, number each one, and place on the floor. Place numbers that match toys in a hat. Invite children to sit in a circle around the toys. Allow children to draw a number and find the matching toy. After toys are chosen, remind children about the importance of taking care of someone else's property and that in a short while the toys will be returned to the circle. Then encourage children to play until it times to return to the circle to return their toy or object to its rightful owner. Repeat the exchange to continue playing and building sharing skills.