Our library recently got a small puppet theater for the children’s area, which we put out with puppets.
We’ve also recently begun staffing an information desk in the children’s area, near the puppet theater.
Watching the children play with it is delightful! It’s completely a natural language and imagination station. Kids automatically pick up the puppets and put on a show. They use special voices. They make up stories. They work with other children on a story. They get their parents’ attention.
One of my favorites were two boys who astonished me when I realized they had, entirely on their own initiative, sorted all the puppets, putting animals who lived in the water in the middle, animals that fly or live in trees on top, and other animals on the bottom!
But all the ways the children interact are unique and such a delight to get to watch!