Ichiro, Boy Hand Puppet

Ichiro “イチロー” , our 46cm high Boy Hand Puppet lives in Tokyo Japan with his family, and loves his home, school and friends. He wants to share his life with you. Learn about life in Tokyo, Japan with Ichiro.

Ichiro is made from premium quality soft velour fabric. He has short straight black hair, pale peachy/pink skin, embroidered black eyebrows. He has carefully embroidered beautiful slanted brown engaging eyes that look at you with love and kindness. His fingers, toes, ears, nose and navel are very cute. He is made with excellent detail and is stuffed to look more like a soft toy, fabric stuffed doll, character or person. His stuffing and design makes it easier for you to hold him and to manipulate him as a puppet. You will fall in love with Ichiro from the moment you pick him up and play with him.

An average size adult hand and fingers fit comfortably from the back of his body into his head, mouth and arms. His mouth opens and he has a tongue. His head, body, arms and legs are stuffed to allow easy handling for play and to make the puppet more like a stuffed soft toy. Bring Ichiro to life when you put your hand inside him and move his head, mouth and arms.

The detail and quality of his clothes will definitely impress your teachers, family and friends. You can take all his clothes off to change his outfit.

He is wearing beautiful Japanese boy costume;

• satin with gold thread pattern blue montsuki jacket and a black belt.
• satin blue with gold thread short kimono type top under the jacket.
• satin black with gold and lilac thread pattern hakama traditional Japanese pants.
• black Geta sandals.
• white tabi, or toe socks.

Take him to school or feature him in a puppet show about Tokyo Japan. His traditional Japanese clothing will inspire you to share stories about life in Japan.

Ichiro loves to play and is a great listener. He can be a chatter box and will keep you company for hours becoming your best friend. Bring him to life and share many experiences with him.

He will inspire your imagination, allow you the freedom to be creative and to come out of your shell. If you’re shy, you can use Ichiro and speak through him to articulate how you are feeling or to gain courage to play with other kids. You can use him to re-tell stories you heard or to create your own stories.

Research with early education specialists has highlighted and proven that Puppets as an educational toy for a child’s growing and developing mind and as a teacher’s or parent’s aid has many benefits;

• By bringing their puppet to life as an independent personality, children will gain courage to speak in front of their classmates and to practise public speaking. Ichiro will assist them to interact and socialise with other children and adults.
• Through Ichiro children will be able to articulate emotional stresses and feelings and resolve them. They can express themselves, gain confidence and become brave with a can-do attitude.
• Children will use their puppet to role play and repeat various tasks that they find challenging improving their confidence and self-esteem.
• The puppets will work fine and gross motor skill dexterity, and hand-eye coordination. Children need to put their hand inside the puppet to manipulate the arms, face, mouth and tongue. Ichiro can be undressed to allow a change of clothes. Some puppet clothes have buttons, zippers and shoelaces. Practising tasks such as; doing up buttons or tying shoelaces will give them confidence and help them become independent.
• Puppets inspire imaginative play, trigger creativity, tests memory, and develops language and reading skills. When children re-tell a story they heard, you will see what they remembered and get an insight into their use of language.
• Children can perform a puppet show, which encourages organisational skills, script writing when they create their own story, language development and use of language when they perform the show, or they may express emotions or feeling that are bothering them through their performance.

Quality tested to meet all international standards including CE, ASTM, CPSIA and ISO.

Suitable for children 3+ years old.

Puppets as an educational toy will:

• develop language and reading skills.
• freely express emotional issues and resolve them, by using the puppet as an extension of self.
• trigger imaginative and creative play when children perform their own puppet show.
• work motor skills by manipulating the puppet; or when taking the puppet’s clothes off or putting them back on the puppet, or when using buttons, zippers, or shoelaces.
• gain confidence, become brave and improve self-esteem.
• encourages socialising, team building, organisational skills and public speaking.