Teaching Preschoolers Kindness with Bob & Larry

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, it’s a great time for teaching preschoolers kindness. The #PlayfulPreschool team is For little ones, the focus definitely isn’t on romance, but it’s a good opportunity to talk to them about friendship and being kind to others. I made these Bob & Larry stick puppets for my preschooler to act out the fun Veggie Tales® song “I Can be Your Friend” as we practiced being kind.

Materials needed for the Bob & Larry Stick Puppets for teaching preschoolers kindness:

Red construction paper

Green construction paper

White paper

Black marker

1 each red & green pom poms

2 craft sticks & two wooden skewers

Scissors

Glue stick and school glue

Due to Shiloh’s special needs, she is not able to cut, but she can help stick pieces together. If you are working with a preschooler with more typical skills, she should be able to complete this project with minimal adult supervision.

With Shiloh we are currently focusing on words and phrases such as “be gentle”, “be nice” and “sorry”. Though it’s not what you would expect from her, she is actually a very gentle and naturally kind child. However, recently, she has begun to test the limits and her strength, so we are having to remind her several times a day to be kind.

In fact, out of the blue today she ‘slapped’ my cheek. Somehow she thought it was a silly way to play, but we wanted to make sure that it wasn’t repeated. I told her it wasn’t nice and that she needed to say “sorry”. I was actually a bit amazed when she offered me a hug and told me “sawy”.

Preschoolers are all about learning their limits and testing them constantly. Guiding them gently through the process is par for the course. But talking to them about being kind and giving them opportunities to role play can help them along the learning curve with less in-person trial and error.

One of Shiloh’s favorite video sets is Veggie Tales. We love how they teach good moral lessons in a way that kids will actually pay attention. Their third video was one called “Are You My Neighbor?” and it is all about teaching kids to be kind.

We absolutely love the song “I Can Be Your Friend” from the movie.

We made our Bob & Larry stick puppets to use to go along with the song.

You can use the puppets for role play to practice being kind.

To make Bob:

Cut one large red oval and turn it on its long side.

Cut two white ovals for the eyes. Glue onto the red oval so that they overlap slightly.

Glue the red pom pom in the center for the nose.

Use the black marker to add detail in the eyes and draw the mouth.

You can add a stem piece to the top with a scrap piece of the green construction paper.

Glue to one of the craft sticks.

To make Larry:

Cut one long green oval with a dent in the right side.

Tape the two wooden skewers to the back of the oval to make it more sturdy.

Cut two smaller white ovals for the eyes. Glue onto the green oval so that they overlap slightly.

Glue the green pom pom in the center for the nose

Use the black marker to add detail in the eyes and draw the mouth.

Glue to one of the craft sticks.

Creating the craft will help preschoolers learn shapes, body parts and practice fine motor skills.

Then, you can have your child imagine some conversations between Bob & Larry. Kids are great at making up their own stories and it will give you many opportunities to teach kindness.

Just to prove to me that it wasn’t a fluke, Bob hit Larry (with no prompting) which gave me yet another opportunity teach Shiloh that hitting isn’t nice and how to say sorry. The last picture in the row is Bob giving Larry a hug!

Be sure to give lots of praise when they are kind without you reminding them!