A day of free creativity for children and young people
For Cruinniú na nÓg 2025 pupeteer Sineád Lynch and the Museum of Childhood Ireland, Músaem Óige na hÉireann’s Arts/Craft/Play ‘Tír na nÓg’ team,* bring you an engagingly creative ‘Make and Story’ Shadow Puppetry session.
Taking place in room 2 on level 5 at the Lexicon, DLR, on Saturday 7th June 2025 from 15:00 to 17:00, the workshop is suitable for all ages up to 17, and parents, siblings, guardians are welcome to attend. We look forward to welcoming you!
Places are free but limited, and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Resources will be supplied to participants. To book, please email info@museumofchildhood.ie
3-4pm – Make, and play with shadow puppets. 4-5pm – Storytelling with puppets.
Art workshop materials are kindly sponsored by Faber-Castell
Puppetry, Puppet Making and Storytelling in Children’s Creativity at the Museum of Childhood Ireland
Puppetry, puppet making, and storytelling offer powerful tools for nurturing children’s creativity through multiple developmental pathways. Each provides unique benefits while complementing the others in profound ways.
There are many puppets and archive material related to puppetry in the museum’s collection, including from the beloved ‘Lambert Puppet Theatre.’ As part of the museum’s permanent home it will also have a puppet theatre aligned to Irish UNIMA.
A dramatic day indoors and out for Cruinniú na nÓg 2025!
Puppetry’s Creative Impact
Puppetry creates a safe psychological distance that empowers children to express thoughts and emotions they might otherwise suppress. When animating puppets, children:
- Develop voice modulation and verbal expression skills
- Practice perspective-taking and empathy through the embodment of different characters
- Explore complex social dynamics in a low-stakes environment
- Build confidence in public speaking and performance
The puppet serves as both shield and amplifier – protecting the child while simultaneously projecting their creative voice
Puppet Making as Creative Process
The act of creating puppets engages children in multi-sensory learning:
- Tactile exploration with different materials helps to build fine motor skills
- Design decisions foster visual-spatial reasoning
- Problem-solving through construction challenges develops engineering thinking
- Personalisation of characters encourages self-expression and identity exploration
Children experience immense pride in bringing their imagined characters to physical life. The puppet becomes a tangible manifestation of their inner creative world
Storytelling as a Creative Foundation
Storytelling provides the narrative framework that gives puppetry purpose:
- Children learn narrative structure and develop sequencing skills
- They explore causality and consequences in a controlled environment
- Language acquisition accelerates through contextual vocabulary use
- Abstract thinking develops as they navigate between literal and symbolic meanings
When children create stories for their puppets, they’re practicing essential cognitive skills that transfer to other creative and academic domains
The Integrated Creative Experience
When puppetry, puppet making, and storytelling combine:
- Children move fluidly between creator, performer, and audience roles
- They experience the full creative cycle from conception to execution
- Multiple intelligences are engaged simultaneously
- Self-directed learning naturally emerges through play
This integrated approach supports holistic development across emotional, social, cognitive, and physical domains
Project concept and management: Majella McAllister, mmcallister@museumofchildhood.ie
