Making Hand Puppets to Teach the Ten Commandments by Genelle Austin Lett

Categories: Moses, Obedience, Ten Commandments (1-5)

In the pre-school Sunday School class, I prepared hand puppet packets for each pupil.

I first made up my own hand as Moses.

1. Put double-stick tape on your thumb and over your forefinger.
2. Add loose yarn to make a head of hair and beard as seen in the picture.
3. Take blue or brown adhesive dots and place them as eyes on your hand.
4. Use a pink dot for the nose.
5. Use lip stick to create a red mouth between forefinger and thumb.
6. Take a plastic glass and turn it upside down.
7. Drape the glass in a striped dish towel.

Then I practiced moving my fingers to make Moses "talk."

The packets for each child include:

1. Dots for eyes and nose
2. A strip of red for the lips
3. Double stick tape for hair line
4. Colored yarn for hair

When each child arrives, make up his/her hand and explain that he/she is one of the Children of Israel.

Moses starts by teaching a commandment. Each child repeats the commandment as a child of Israel. By tagging the hand puppet with a piece of wax paper with the child's name on it, everyone can take off their hand costumes and keep them for subsequent weeks work.

The first Sunday, I taught the children to say, "Power belongeth unto God" after they heard each commandment. Then we started the specific work of memorizing the commandments. I have found that the children learn the commandments quickly as they get their hands to mouth the words of their puppets.

This project was taken so seriously that one Sunday when I asked the students to close their eyes for the Lord's prayer, one little boy went so far as to cover the eyes on his hand!