Folkmanis Hand Puppets for Home, Nursery and Therapy

Folkmanis has been making hand and finger puppets since 1976. Many of the animal figures are worked so closely on the real animal that you can name the species at a glance. You see straight away how much that lets you tell: a slight movement of the wrist, and the Folkmanis hand puppet turns towards someone.

Four groups make up the range: hand puppets as the largest section, the reversible puppets shelved within it, then finger puppets and stage puppets. Which one you want is usually settled by who is playing and who is watching — a child on their own, a nursery teacher in front of a group, a therapist and one child.

How the figures are played

On many figures the mouth moves, on some bird figures the beak; on others it is the forelegs, the wings or the head alone — sometimes more than one at once. You tend to work out what can be moved before you have thought about it: children's hands get the hang of it as quickly as practised ones.

What separates a figure that moves from a still one is less how it looks than when it moves. It can hesitate before answering, turn away, or lift its head when its name comes up. That makes it something to talk to, not something held up for show. Children pick this up fast: they stop narrating what the figure does and start speaking to it. None of it needs practice, it all comes out of the movement of your own hand.

The hand puppets cover a wide span: from figures that sit on a child's hand to ones that cover the whole forearm. The smaller ones sit on a child’s hand, the larger ones on an adult’s — either way it is worked with one hand.

The reversible puppets belong here too: turned inside out, the same figure becomes a second one. Where a story turns on a transformation, the change is shown rather than described. And anyone playing alone has two parts on one hand.

With the finger puppets, a whole cast fits on one hand: each finger takes its own voice, and two of them are enough for a conversation. In a group that means every child can hold a figure instead of waiting for the one, and in speech work a single hand covers both question and answer. They travel anywhere; most live on shape and marking, a few have a movable mouth.

When the figure does the talking

On a finger or on the whole arm — some things are easier to say when the figure says them. At home it takes no more than a story in which the figure joins in and the plot leaves the book behind. They are a favourite present from grandparents looking for something a child will tell stories with rather than watch.

In a nursery the figure takes on a role a child would not dare play in their own voice. It asks the group the question, it makes a start on the tidying up, it is there first thing in the morning. A primary class meets it when an animal is introduced in a lesson, and again in role play, when an argument can be worked through without anyone having to have one.

Speech and language work uses it to take the edge off repetition: a syllable said twenty times goes down better with an animal listening. Therapeutic work puts it differently: a child can say something about themselves through the figure without saying it in their own voice. And with older people a familiar animal figure starts conversations where direct questions no longer do. Often it is an animal that once mattered in that person's life.

Stage puppets: played over a puppet stage

The stage puppets differ in how they are held: the hand goes in from below, the way it does with a Punch and Judy puppet. That is what lets the figure be raised over a puppet stage — hence the name. One hand does the work, the small version as much as the large. The small one is built for small children's hands. Without a stage, both play like any other hand puppet, in front of a group or across a table.

Twice a year new figures arrive; they are listed under New Arrivals. Nurseries, schools and clinics can order on account.