This is the perfect song to bring back our fun Shadow Puppet Theater!! It’s such a fun activity the kids absolutely love and here are cool new Stars Were Gleaming Shadow Puppets to add to your collection.
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Stars Were Gleaming Shadow Puppets
*Downloads are available at the bottom of the post when signed in!*
Supplies:
- Shadow Puppet Theater — See Directions Here!
- Scissors or craft knife
- Cardstock
- Tape
- Skewers, pencils, or straws
- Bedside lamp or large flashlight
Assembling the Shadow Puppets:
Print out the Stars Were Gleaming Shadow Puppets (at the bottom of this post). I highly recommend using cardstock as it will help give your puppets structure so they won’t bend.
Another good tip is to laminate your shadow puppets! It will let you cut out finer details, then assemble the individual pieces inside a clear laminating sheet.
This will allow the light to pass through the small details you cut out, while still giving you strength and support and you just need to have one spot to attach a handle to! It really will give you a lot of flexibility with your puppets.
Cut out each of your shadow puppet designs. Leave any of the black spaces in place and remove and discard all the white pieces. You may have to leave a little bit of the white space, as necessary, to keep your puppets in one piece, but cut out as much of the excess white cardstock as you can!
You can easily do this with a craft knife like this one! Just use your extra cardboard scraps as a cutting mat to protect your surface and carve around the white areas, and press gently and they’ll easy pop out, such as the eyes on the smiley face!
Then, attach the puppets to a pencil (or craft sticks, straws, skewers, etc). I buy this big pack of Ticonderoga Pencils a few times a year – they’re the best! You can reuse them as mini rhythm sticks.
Using the Stars Were Gleaming Shadow Puppets in Singing Time
Sing through Stars Were Gleaming (flip chart) once before getting started.
Then, invite a child to come up and help you and pass out just the first puppet. Tell them what their puppet represents (stars gleaming) and have them add the puppet when they hear the word!
Turn on the light and then sing through the first verse. The kids will be LOVE seeing the stars magically appear!
Now, add 2 more helper and sing through it again, (sheep and shepherd). Then the next 2 (moon and dreaming) puppets.
Switch helpers and sing through the first full line again!
Now, switch to the next set of puppets and lines of the song. (Angels, Ear, Hill, Music note, Bells, Earth, Gift, Headphones).
Stars Were Gleaming Shadow Puppets
Guide to Included Puppets
Page 1 Puppets:
- Stars = Stars were gleaming
- Sheep = Shepherds
- Men dreaming = Dreaming
- Moon = Night was dark
Page 2 Puppets:
- Angel = Angels’ story
- Ear = Shepherds heard
- Music note = Singing
- Bells = Ringing
- Gift = Christmas bringing
More Fun Extension Activities:
- Let the kids act out the scene of the song (give them a timer like 30 seconds or a minute). Have them narrate what’s happening! Then sing through the song again and have the kids listen for the parts from the act!
- Hold up the puppets (outside of the theater) in order. Raise them high when they hear their part of the song!
Head over next to see our fun I See a Hero Shadow Puppets singing time idea post for more fun themed puppets to add to your collection!
Stars Were Gleaming Shadow Puppets Printable Singing Time Lesson Plan & Puppets!
This printable includes 2 pages of printable shadow puppets to help you teach the first verse.
You’ll find 2 additional pages of printable shadow puppets for the 2nd verse and additional graphics plus a larger format included in your INSTANT Primary Singing membership packet in the December New Testament year.
To access the free in-post printables for this post, you’ll just need to create a free account or login with the Grow.me tool. Then, confirm by email and refresh the page and ALL my free printables will automatically unlock in every post!
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Head over next to see our fun The Nativity Song Posters idea!
How did this fun Stars Were Gleaming Shadow Puppets activity go over in your Primary? Do you have any more fun ideas for extending this activity?
Only attempt this if you want to spend a couple hours cutting, trimming all the white out, laminating, labeling to figure out which puppets go to which word, and so on. I thought it sounded simple and seemed right up my alley, but it is quite the project.
You don’t have to trim off any extra white. Cut close to the shapes, but the extra white is just fine! The light shines through the white. 🙂