Hello Puppeteers!

Thank you to Connor, Jessika, Lynnette, Sabrina, Kathryn, and Morgan for writing in to my blog and for being fans of my puppet projects.

Lynnette had a great question from her teddy bear puppet, Kim! Kim asked how I thought of making the Convert-a-Bear Puppet. Well Kim, when I was in high school I was very interested in making patterns for my puppets. One of the ways I would figure out how to make them was to take apart old teddy bears. One day, instead of taking my teddy bear apart, I put a mouth inside the teddy bear and it became my new puppet. Today, if I need to make a quick puppet for a gift or for a character in my live shows, I run to the toy store or look through my collection of inexpensive teddy bears. I always make sure, however, that it is okay to convert the bears that I find. I wouldn’t want to take apart someone else’s bear without asking first. You can see some of my favorite bears performing at Activity TV in their own Convert-A-Bear Skit.

Thanks, Kim and Lynnette!

I’m very excited about my two latest puppet skits, The Dirty Spoon Food Adventure and The Toe Jamboree. They come from my new projects, the Dirty Spoon Puppets and Filthy Feet Puppets. I hope you have fun making and performing these puppets and any of my new gross creatures: The Black Cat Sock Puppet, The Mummy Rod Puppet, The Bulging Eyeball Puppet, and The Up-Chuck Jug Puppet. Let me know what you think of them.

As you probably know I have been a puppeteer for television and films for over 20 years and I’ve been really busy lately performing puppet characters all over the country. One of my favorite new projects is called Pajanimals for PBS Kids Sprout, but I’m currently working through the holidays on Sesame Street. If you get a chance, watch me perform an elephant for the Elephant Dance Song.

I hope everyone is having a happy and safe holiday season. Speaking of Holidays, if you would like to make your own holiday puppets take a look at all of the cool puppets I have to offer. There is the Santa Mitten Puppet, The Dancing Snowman Puppet, The Kwanzaa Corn Puppet, The Chanukah Dreidel Puppet, and more. Of course you can perform along with The Elves That Saved Christmas Skit and Sonny and the Snow Dancers.

Don’t forget to have an adult helper around when you try making my puppets, and keep me posted on any new characters you make or questions you have.

Keep making puppets!

JK

Hungry for the holidays? Well you’re in luck! We’re starting the celebration a little early with a smorgasbord of Thanksgiving kids activities!

There’s a wide variety of cool holiday activities to get everyone into the Thanksgiving spirit. Bruce Blitz can show you how to draw the best cartoons for the festivities, using neat doodle tricks to make cartoon turkeys, pilgrims, and more!

Meanwhile, John Kennedy can get the party started with fun holiday skits featuring pilgrim puppets and Thanksgiving parade aliens.

It’s too cool!

But best of all, we can help you out with the real reason everyone loves Thanksgiving: the food! The Activity TV kitchen is chock full of all kinds of yummy Thanksgiving recipes for kids, including ones for the perfect pumpkin pie, a delicious cranberry sauce, and even a great way to use Thanksgiving leftovers.

Boy, I’m getting hungry just thinking about all of these fun activities for kids. I can’t wait to dig in, so what are you waiting for? Check them out and let me know what you think.

Have a great Thanksgiving, kids (and don’t forget to feed your dogs too)!

S.P.

Finally it’s Fall!!!! Fall is by far my favorite season of them all! I love picking apples and raking leaves…and then of course there’s good old Halloween! Have you checked out our awesome Halloween projects yet? Whether you’re looking for clever costume ideas, pondering how to carve the perfect pumpkin, or craving some ghoulish Halloween crafts, ATV is the place to be!

Now that the weather has started to turn a bit cooler, I’ve gotten back into crocheting! Fall is the perfect time to start making scarves, hats, and mittens for winter! Have you ever tried crocheting? Have you tried making the Weave it to Beaver necklace? Well, if so, you’ve come close to crocheting! Crocheting is just another type of weaving. Instead of using your fingers (like you did for the Weave it to Beaver Necklace) you use a crochet hook! Pretty cool, huh?

I just finished making these funky mittens. Aren’t they crazy looking?

I continued switching off between the tie-dyed yarn and the frilly yarn until I was done with both mittens!

I can’t wait until it’s cold enough to wear these outside!

If you’ve made the Weave it to Beaver necklace and feel like you want to give crocheting a try, stop by your local library or craft store and pick up a beginner’s crocheting craft book. And don’t forget we have lots of other fun and easy projects for kids to try too!

Have fun and stay warm this fall!

Hey guys!

Wait till you see what’s cooking this month over on Activity TV…

Ewwwww! Pretty gross, huh? I’m not sure I like the way he’s looking at me.

If you think that’s disgusting, we’re just getting started! We’re bringing you all kinds of cool activities guaranteed to gross out you and your friends!

Ready to make some disgusting fake throw-up with Dave Jadico in the ATV Gross Out Lab? How about seeing Ryan Oakes perform some really weird and disgusting magic tricks?

There are some yucky developments in the ATV Puppet Theater too with my buddy John Kennedy! Creepy Mummy Puppets, Bulging Eye Balls, and it looks like I may have a little competition on the way…

That’s right kids, I’m going to have to make room for a sock kitty! What am I going to do???

There are plenty more gross kids activities that you have to see to believe.

Check them out let me know what you think.

And if those are too messy and disgusting for you, there are still a lot more fun, free activities and crafts to enjoy elsewhere on the site.

Until next time pals!

S.P.

BOO! What do you think, guys? Is that scary or what?

I just wanted to remind all of you that Halloween is right around the corner, and Activity TV has everything you need to scare up all kinds of spooky fun!

Wait till you see all of the cool and easy Halloween activities for kids to do. We’ve got homemade trick or treat bags, pumpkin carving patterns, and best of all, lots of great Halloween costume ideas!

We even have fun Halloween treats that are sure to be a scream at your next Halloween party!

Don’t forget to have an adult helper around for all of these Halloween arts and crafts and feel free to tell me about your own favorite spooky activities

Trick or treat, kids! Mwahahaha!

Hey Guys and Gals!

Check out this new cool craft project I’ve been working on! I took some boring old purses that I never use and transformed them into super awesome handbags with a little paint and imagination.

Here they are before…

and here they are after!

Remember when we made those really cool homemade lunch bags? These are the same kind of craft projects! We just used felt and glue instead of paint to make an ordinary lunch bag look super awesome. I used purses and paint for these craft projects, but you could use anything you want! You could even decorate your backpack if you wanted. You’d be the coolest kid in the hall with an awesome design drawn on your bag!

Here’s how I made the Squid Purse:

First, I found a bunch of pictures of a squid online so I could really see what they look like.

Then, I practiced drawing the squid on paper. Once I figured out how I wanted my squid to look, I drew him on the purse with a pen:

Then it was time to paint!

I love how it turned out! I painted a squid on my purse because they’re such crazy creatures from the deep. I like to think my purse has been attacked by a sea monster!

Try it out for yourself and let me know how it goes. Be sure to check out the other fun crafts for kids on Activity TV!

Looking for some high-flying summer fun? Look no further, kids! Your canine comrade Sock Puppy has the perfect outdoor summer activity: kite making!

Activity TV can teach you how to make a kite that’s really fly (get it?). You can choose from lots of cool kite designs that show you every step from building to flight. My favorite kites are the Dragon Kite and the Suruga Kite.

Kite flying is great for nice days in the park or on the beach. Just make sure you hold on tight! This one time, the wind got a hold of my kite and picked me right up with it! It was hard getting down from that tree afterwards…

But where was I? Oh yeah, I’ll bet that you can’t wait to make your own kite. So get started and let me know how it goes!

And don’t forget to check our other fun activities for kids!

S.P.

What’s up, dogs!

Did you know that you can find the instructions for all of our activities for kids in Activity TV’s free printables section?

Any kids’ activity that you see on the site can be found here with printable instructions. We have it all! From free printable crafts and recipes for kids to cheerleading printables. We also have fun holiday printables. Halloween printables, Christmas printables, you name it, we’ve got it!

With these printables, kids can follow along with activities in the videos or do them without them. I like to use printables because my paws make it hard to work the remote!

I hope these printables make our activities easier for kids. Let me know if they help.

See you all on Activity TV, the best site on the web for free kids activities!

S.P.

Hello Puppeteers!

Thank you for being a fan of my puppet projects. I’ve had so much fun reading your comments and now, with the ATV Blog, you can ask me your most important puppet questions and I can answer them. I am very excited about this because when I was a kid I always wished I had someone who could help me with my puppets. Also, I would love to hear about the puppets you have been making. I found my voice as a performer through the voices of my puppet characters so if your puppet friends would like to ask me something that is okay too.

Speaking of friends, one of my favorite ways to have some summer fun is to host a puppet camp. Invite your friends over to make some puppet crafts and perform them for your family and friends. Activity TV puppet projects are a lot of fun and they come with skits that you can perform along with when you’ve finished your puppet. One of my favorites is Banana Buddy. You can make you own cool banana character then perform The Banana Bread Man skit that I wrote specifically for this puppet project.

Don’t forget to have an adult helper around when you try making my puppets, and be sure to tell me about the puppet character you make in the comment section.

Keep making Puppets!

JK

Hi kids,

It sure has been hot this summer, hasn’t it? It’s even hotter for us dogs because we don’t sweat. Good thing Activity TV has plenty of cool summer treats to help us beat the heat.

That’s right. Summer fun isn’t just about kite flying and sandcastles. It’s also about staying cool. That won’t be hard at all once you’ve tried our cool homemade lemonade recipe. You’ll never need to hit the lemonade stand again, which works for me because I’m always too short to reach!

Activity TV also has great summer snacks to go with your lemonade, like our awesome funnel cake recipe, caramel apples, and my favorite, homemade ice pops!

I never get tired of licking these. It’s great exercise for my tongue!

Don’t forget to have an adult helper around when you try making these summer recipes, and be sure to tell me your favorite summer treat in the comment section.

Have a great Summer filled with fun kids activities!

S.P.