When I tuck my kids in at night, I often find myself making shadow puppets with my hands in the light from their bed lamps. The kids inevitably want to try to make the same shapes with their hands. Sometimes a kind of wall-based puppet show develops in which shadow monkeys and birds fight and talk to each other. On nights the shadow puppets make an appearance, tuck-in time stretches from five minutes to fifteen.
In this illustrated guide, we highlight several classic hand shadow puppets. We included a mixture of easy ones for little kids and more intricate ones for older kids (and adults). Have fun playing around with this silhouette menagerie.