Scrolling Puppet Theater

So Hazel has been asking to make a puppet theater for a long time. We just have not had the time. The other day she asked if I could help her with a project. She described the project and I knew she had gotten the idea from an episode of Curious George (or Georgie as Hazel likes to call him). To see the episode on YouTube click here. (As you can see in the picture above Hazel and her best friend went to see Curious George last spring at the Curious George Store in Harvard Square.)

In the episode Curious George went to see the opera, Hansel and Gretel. He went because his friend, Betsy, got the chicken pox and could not go. Hansel and Gretel is Betsy's favorite opera. George loved it and he got the idea to do a show for Betsy. He finally came up with a scrolling show. Hazel wanted to put on Cinderella in a somewhat similar way, except she wanted to use her figures but have the background scroll. 

I had a UPS box that I had saved for a craft. I cut a hole in it and opened the tabs on both ends. One end was already open and the other I cut a slit to slide the paper in. We also happened to have a broken wooden dowel, so I used that. I glued and taped it to each tab. Then we put paper towel tubes on the dowel pieces. I took Hazel's scroll paper from her paint easel. It was a little big so we had to cut the piece in height. She drew her scenery with a little help from me on the castle. Then we taped it to the paper towel tubes while feeding it through the box.  Now she enjoys acting out Cinderella with her figurines.

Have television shows inspired your child to make a craft? What shows? Curious George is great for getting kids to investigate and think about things. I recently heard on the news that kids who read and watch Curious George tend to do better in math and science. Don't know the facts from the study though to know if it is valid.