Did you know that MiniZoo stocks a great range of plush animal puppets? We have a number of brands, each with their own style and we love them all! We hope you do too, so we thought we’d show them off a little in this blog and share all our personal favourites.

Puppets are an awesome resource for play and learning, particularly when reading for some interactive storytelling, or singalongs, and especially when getting imaginative with puppet shows. If you’re an educator, particularly of early childhood or primary students, and haven’t already discovered the magic of puppets, I highly recommend you give it a go. It will engage your entire audience.

Folkmanis

MiniZoo founders Sandee and Jason love Folkmanis puppets, as their top picks are the Scarlet Macaw and the Wyvern Dragon. Their plush bodies are super soft, and the colours are incredibly vibrant.

If you’re after traditional, plush puppets with moveable arms, mouths and more, Folkmanis puppets are a great place to start. They offer hand puppets as well as finger puppets with a large range of farm, mythical, ocean, prehistoric, and wild animals to choose from. If you have a book in mind, you’re sure to find a matching puppet to read along with you and your little ones.

Norah is unicorn-obsessed so it’s no surprise that her favourite is the super soft, mythical, magical and MUSICAL unicorn puppet from Folkmanis. As well as a moveable mouth, you can wind its beautiful pink tail and it plays a melodic tune. She also loves the Black Unicorn Finger Puppet so if you want a smaller alternative, that one is perfect for play.

Folkmanis also make Little Hands Puppets, which are perfect for kids to play with themselves, as they’re made to fit a child’s hand. While the Folkmanis Stage Puppets are great if you want to create an authentic puppet show, as they are just the neck and head of the animal, ideal for poking their head out of a curtain, box or window for a theatrical performance.

James’ favourite Folkmanis puppet is the epic Blue Whale, and Tahnaya also loves any of the Folkmanis sea animal puppets, especially the Dolphin and Narwhal. The size of these are awesome, perfect for cuddles. Kieran’s pick is the Folkmanis Ferret which is incredibly soft and features long white whiskers and fluffy tail. Kieran has also had some success getting fussy kids to try new foods when a puppet feeds it to them at dinner!

Hansa Creation

Hansa puppets are also plush and a little more lifelike with farm, wild, and Aussie animal puppets to choose from, as well as a couple of dinosaur puppets too. Like Folkmanis, the Hansa puppets are also incredibly soft, and also use a variety of materials to make the fur, feathers and scales look real and authentic. Hansa puppets can’t always open their mouths for imaginative speech, but their arms or wings move with ease once you slip your hands inside and help them to come to life.

Blair’s favourite puppet would honestly be anything dinosaur, but he truly loves this Hansa T-Rex. Its colouring and plush scaly detailing is very impressive for a puppet. Isaac loves the realistic and super soft and fluffy Hansa Raccoon which is the perfect snuggle buddy.

Jozzies 

Jozzies are Australian made and have a great range of native Australian animal puppets from famous icons like the Kangaroo, Koala, Emu, Echidna and Platypus, to lesser known Aussie animals such as the Numbat, Thylacine, Tawny Frogmouth and Bilby. Jozzies animals have such sweet faces and some animals even come in different colours, like the Peeper Possum which you can get with a brown or grey tail, or Kate Kangaroo and Joey which comes in grey or red.

Ella loves Jozzies puppets, especially the Rainbow Lorikeet for its beautiful colours. Another favourite is the Numbat, because its one of those unique animals that we don’t see very often in figurine form.

Tara Treasures 

Tara Treasures finger puppets are ethically hand-felted from 100% New Zealand wool, are vibrantly coloured, and usually come in themed sets of 5. These themes are usually grouped by habitat like South American, Asian, Polar Region, Insects, Safari, Ocean and Australian (with 8 different sets of Aussie animals). Sometimes they come in sets with a book, or are ready to go for nursery rhymes like the Old MacDonald Farm Animals Finger Puppet Sets.

Riley always gets super excited when we get the vibrant Tara Treasures Coral Reef Under the Sea finger puppets out. The colours instantly catch his eye and he loves trying to ‘catch’ them when they’re wiggling on my fingers.

Science & Nature 

Science and Nature are also vibrantly coloured and offer a nice range of Australian animals in finger puppet form. They have a number of Aussie birds as well as all the iconic natives like the Kangaroo, Koala, Wombat, Echidna and Platypus. 

Finger puppets are great for interactive reading just as the larger puppets are, but the smaller ones are great for getting the kids themselves involved, where they can act out the story with the finger puppet while you read the story.

It’s so hard to pick my personal favourite, but I love the finger puppets, especially the Aussie ones. The Science & Nature Kangaroo, Koala and Kookaburra finger puppets are great for playing with the kids and make it easy to enhance story time. I love seeing them reaching for the finger puppets when they request certain bedtime stories!

We’d love to hear your favourites too, so please share your MiniZoo puppet favourites with us, and even better - tell us how you play with them! Which stories do you create interactive reading experiences with? Have your little ones made a puppet show? Tag us on Instagram, Facebook or post in our VIP group and let us know!

Jenna @ MiniZoo