Bat Finger Puppet
Materials Needed
- fingers cut from brown or black work gloves (1 per child)
- 2” black or brown pompom (1 per child)
- 1” black or brown pompom (1 per child)
- brown or black craft foam
- wing pattern for tracing
- glue dots or craft glue
- plastic or sticker eyes
Background Information
Bats are nocturnal and often hibernate in old buildings or attics (haunted houses). For these reasons, they have been associated with fall and Halloween. Most bats are hibernating or have migrated by late October. They’re bug eaters and there just aren’t enough bugs around.
Bats are the only flying mammal. Bats wings are their hands so bats fly with their hands. They have good night vision and good hearing but they hunt using echolocation. In order to locate their prey, they send out a high frequency sound. The sound bounces off the prey and comes back to the bat.
Activity
Children can use cardboard tubes to bounce sound. Two children work together. They both point their tubes to a wall, the floor, a table etc. One child holds the tube to their ear to listen. The other child whispers into their tube.
Before making the puppet, show the children a plastic model. Look at the wings and find the fingers. Ask the children to bend their elbows and put their hands at their shoulders, spread their fingers, then pretend to fly like a bat.
Pass out the craft foam and ask the children to place the wing pattern on the foam and trace around it. They then cut it out. (Pre-cut the wings for the younger children.)
These wings are glued onto the glove finger. The large pompom is glued on top of the wings. The small pompom is glued in front of the wings. Eyes are glued to the small pompom.
Activities provided by:
Fontenelle Forest
1111 N. Bellevue Blvd.
Bellevue, NE 68005
www.fontenelleforest.org
_ 0-1
_ 1-2
_ 2-3
✓ 3-4
✓ 4-5
✓ 5-6
Category: Crafts
Iowa Early Learning Standards:
8.2, 9.3, 10.4, 12.4, 13.1, 13.3, 14.3
Related Kindernature Resources:
