Welcome to Hands-on Initiative

At HEPI, we believe in the magic of puppetry as a transformative educational tool and a powerful art form. Our mission is to inspire creativity, enhance learning, and foster a deeper understanding of storytelling through the art of puppetry, while promoting emotional and social wellness by encouraging empathy, connection, and community engagement.

Benefits of the Use of Puppets in Childcare:

Puppets are an excellent way to capture and hold the attention and imagination of children of all ages. Therefore, including puppets in your child care curriculum is a fun method to encourage youngsters to learn new skills and concepts. Some of the advantages of employing puppets in child care are listed below

SOCIAL SKILLS

Puppets can increase children’s communication and social skills by providing structured opportunities to interact with the puppets. Children can also practice these skills by using puppets to interact with other children.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Puppets can support children emotionally by giving them a friend to talk to, or a way to talk to other children without having to speak directly.

CONFIDENCE IN READING AND SPEAKING

Children who are reluctant to speak or read out loud may be more willing to talk or read to a puppet.

MUSIC APPRECIATION

Puppets can make music and creative movement more interesting and can teach children the words and movements to new songs in a refreshing way.

GUIDANCE

Children can learn appropriate behavior by watching the puppets’ example, or the puppet can introduce and explain class rules, for instance.

ENCOURAGING CREATIVITY

Children can use puppets to come up with stories, scenarios, and inspire creative ways to solve problems

CAPTURING ATTENTION

Puppets can be good tools to capture the attention of young children in large- group and small-group settings, especially if the adult gives the puppet an engaging personality.