Well, the headline pretty much sums this one up, folks. As if sock puppets weren’t unique enough, now there’s an iPad app for kids called Puppet Workshop that gives kids all the raw materials necessary to create their own virtual sock puppets. The app features 20 different gloves, mittens, and socks, plus 150 household items (e.g., thread, buttons, etc.) that can be positioned, scaled, flipped, and rotated on the puppet. Puppet Workshop comes with 18 background images built-in, or kids can use any image from the Camera Roll as a custom background. When completed, kids just touch the camera button to save and share their projects that are saved to Photos. All items are ultra-sharp, HiRes photographs of actual socks, buttons, and background paintings.
Listed in the Top 10 Kids Apps in the U.S. App Store, Puppet Workshop has received glowing reviews from AppAbled, Fun Educational Apps, The iPhone Mom, and others. According to Smart Apps for Kids, “Since it has significant replay value, this app is a must-buy for parents of kids of all ages – at least 3-10, but older and younger children may enjoy it, too. Let Puppet Workshop inspire your children toward more creativity, both on the iPad and off.”
Feature Highlights:
* Application suitable for children of all age groups
* Simple interface makes the app easy to use for kids
* 20 different socks and gloves from which you can create your puppet
* More than 150 items from which you can make eyes, hair, nose, mouth, and other parts of the puppets
* 18 backgrounds available in the application – add your own background image from camera roll on your iPad
* Puppets you create are stored and displayed in the application
* Change puppets’ names
* Save your puppet as an image to your device
On launch in landscape orientation, young puppet-makers are greeted by four Polaroids arranged casually on a worktable containing random buttons, geometric shapes, laces, and pipe cleaners. Each Polaroid is labeled with the name of the sock, glove, or mitten pictured. For example, Emma is a white sock with thin, horizontal blue stripes; Rebecca is a bright magenta woolen glove; and Toby is a brown knit mitten with horizontal stripes of various sizes and colors. There are five arrays of puppet faces to choose from, and touching one opens it full screen.
A dazzling collection of small objects from which to make noses, eyes, mouths, hair, eyebrows, clothing, and more is neatly arranged into five categories, accessible from the materials window, scrolling vertically on the right. Kids will find 35 different colored buttons, plain and decorative, solid and patterned, with buttonholes and without. Next, is a wide assortment of 30 fibers, threads, laces, wool, and pipe cleaners in balls, skeins, strips, coils, bunches, and braids. Third is an assemblage of 32 zippers, jewelry chains, bottle caps, watchstraps, plastic and wooden clothespins, and ribbons. Fourth is a portfolio of 34 shapes cut out from felt, textured paper, and paper colored with crayon, including hearts, stars, circles, triangles, comb’s teeth, strips, twists, and tangles. Last is an eclectic treasure trove of 25 feathery, furry, crinkly, velour, and gem cut shapes, plumes, stones, and pins.
Puppet Workshop is designed to enable young imaginations, and kids are free to place as many doodads as they like on their puppet-in-progress. They simply touch and drag to position it. As they do, five control buttons drop down from the top of the screen: Rotate Counterclockwise, Rotate Clockwise, Enlarge, Shrink, and Flip Horizontally. When finished, the control buttons go back up offscreen. Buttons, strands, ornaments, etc. can be positioned on top of each other, and young artists can easily drag items to change their position or layer.
Before saving their finished project to Photos, kids can experiment with any of 18 different backgrounds that are supplied. Alternatively, they can draw their own custom background for their sock puppet. Using a snapshot as a background lets kids interact with their puppet in a group photo.
Particularly mindful of the safety of their users, apps from Jump App:
* Do not collect or share any user’s personal information
* Do not contain ads
* Do not contain any In-App Purchases
* Do not contain social networks integration
“Do you like this game?” asked Sebastian Bachorzewski of Jump App. “Easy as 1-2-3 you can use any socks, buttons, and threads that you can find at home and create your own hand puppets. Put them on your hands, play different roles and have a lot of fun.”
Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iOS 5.1 or later
* 327 MB
Pricing and Availability:
Puppet Workshop – Creativity App for Kids 1.0 is $2.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category. Review copies are available on request. Puppet Workshop – Creativity App for Kids Lite 1.0 is available free.
