Happy Dino Puppets Activity and “Happy Hands” Book Review

by Haley Bono

Making new friends can be scary and intimidating. If your little one is nervous about making new friends, “Happy Hands” by Marisa Mieczkowski is a great book to add to your library.

This book follows Odin on his first days of kindergarten. At first he is excited and shows that excitement through moving his hands in the air. However, one classmate makes fun of his hands, and Odin becomes sad. Luckily another classmate is quick to jump in and make friends through a shared love of dinosaurs. .

The pictures throughout this book are adorable and fun and really show Odin’s hand movements as the story is told. I love how this book teaches kids to recognize the physical signs of emotions. You can ask your little ones what do you do when you’re happy, or sad? Many of us use movement to express ourselves similar to Odin’s “happy hands.” I also love the example this book shows of how to be a good friend. It’s important to teach our little one’s to try and reach out and connect with other kids who might feel friendless or lonely. So often being a good friend is the best way of making friends.

I am so excited to say Rella B. Books partnered with Yarn Spinning Mama with this review. Rella B. produces amazing podcasts, and posts incredible Youtube videos with wonderful read-alouds of children's books. You can check out her youtube channel here. She has done a podcast reading of this book, you can check it out here. If you would like to add this amazing book to your library you can buy it here.

Let’s make some happy dino puppets for our happy hands!

Supplies:

Free activity template (there will be a download at the end of the post), something to color with, scissors, glue, tape, cereal box–or similar (optional), blank paper (optional).

Directions:

1. Color each dinosaur.
2. Cut out the dinosaur’s and small rectangle strips of paper.
3. Wrap the rectangle strips of paper around your finger loosely and secure with tape.
4. Glue one dinosaur to each strip of paper, making four little dino finger puppets.
5. Color the stage, and cut it out.
6. OPTION 1: glue the stage to a cereal box (or something similar) cut the back of the cereal box off, as well the empty portion in the center of the curtains. You’ll want to keep the bottom and sides of the box so that it stands on its own. You may need to use tape to reinforce the corners.
7. OPTION 2: If you don’t have a box you can just color and cut out the stage and tape it to a wall. Kids will still have fun with their finger puppets out in front of the pretend stage.

Different Variations:

• If you are working with older kids you can use blank paper and have them create their own finger puppets.
• A fun way to reinforce concepts taught in “Happy Hands” the book, would be to reenact different scenes from the story using the finger puppets that were just made.