Small enough to be there whenever a story starts
A Folkmanis finger puppet is a small sculpted figure with a hollow body sized for a finger. A few take several fingers, and on others a magnet holds the tail round the wrist. Most are small enough that a whole cast fits into one pocket. Snout or beak, markings, plumage and shell are shaped so a child can tell at once which animal it is.
On some finger puppets a part of the character can be worked as well: the head, the tail or the front legs. A few have a mouth that opens, others withdraw out of sight, and some do more than one of these. The rest rely on shape alone, and that is enough, because the finger supplies the movement.
Alongside the animals there are mythical creatures too, such as dragons and unicorns. A finger puppet is made much as the hand puppets are, from several pieces of fabric and with a sculpted face.
What the small format makes possible
- Always to hand. A finger puppet needs no space of its own.
- Several at once. One hand carries enough characters for a conversation; two hands carry a whole cast.
- Nothing to set up. The story starts wherever somebody happens to be sitting.
- Speaking up comes more easily. A child who will not speak up in front of others often will once the small character does the talking.
- One for every child. In a group every child holds their own, instead of waiting for the one shared finger puppet to come round.
Putting a cast together: what to weigh up
One finger puppet, or a set for the whole group?
At home or in a waiting room a single character is usually enough, and it becomes the one that gets brought out again and again. Anyone equipping a group counts differently: as many finger puppets as there are children in the circle. Choose clearly different animals, so that every child knows which one is theirs.
Which characters will talk to each other?
A cast becomes interesting when the characters are as unlike one another as possible. A large animal beside a tiny one, hunter and hunted, loud and quiet: pairs like these produce the first conflict on their own.
How does it sit on the finger?
How roomy a finger puppet is inside varies from one to the next, and is hard to tell from the outside. A roomy body sits well on an adult finger but slips more easily off a slim child’s finger. For young children, and wherever fine motor control is not yet steady or no longer steady, a wider body is often the more comfortable choice, because it can also be held in the whole hand rather than balanced on one finger.
Speaking, practising or simply being there?
If the character is meant to speak, the finger supplies the movement: it nods, turns away, leans in — and the group can see who is speaking. Only a few finger puppets have a movable mouth. For naming, counting and pointing, the moving parts hardly matter. And where a finger puppet is simply there while a child talks, what counts most is how comfortably it sits on the finger.
In the classroom, in therapy and on the move
In language support and in English as an additional language, the character says what a child does not yet dare to say. Vocabulary, prepositions and short dialogues all work with two finger puppets on one hand, and nobody has to stand at the front.
Speech therapists have children practise syllables and sounds with a small character; many children find it easier to repeat them after the character than after an adult. Primary classrooms use finger puppets for finger rhymes and early reading. On a train, in the car or in a waiting room, they help the time pass.
Elderly care and dementia care use them too, as a way into a conversation that demands nothing of anyone: the finger puppet can be put down again at any time.