For those little hands, try using peanut shells to make finger puppets. Cut the peanut shell in the center of the skinny section, between the nuts, being careful not to split the shell up the seam. Sand off the rough edges and paint the shell a uniform color if you desire. Draw numbers, letters or faces on the shell and create your own puppets. If you use numbers or letters, the puppets can help your preschooler learn to count or recognize letters.
Angel finger puppets may entertain preschoolers in a Sunday school class or preschool. You can craft angels by wrapping a rolled piece of paper around a finger. The children can then create angel hair, wings, halos and clothing with scraps of tissue, yarn and cloth. Crayons are useful for drawing on the face and other features.
If you want sturdy puppets that use fingers as legs or body parts, EnchantedLearning.com has free printable, black-and-white puppet stencils you can print on stiff construction paper with cut-out holes for inserting fingers. The paper puppets include an elephant, Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater and wife, and three dinosaur puppets with a short poem.
You can use this idea to draw your own paper puppets using well-known nursery rhymes and allowing the children to color in the features. Reinforce the back of the puppets with heavy duty packing tape after they are decorated; it will make the puppets more durable and less likely for the holes to tear out.
DLTK-kids.com has free Five Little Monkeys finger puppet printable stencils that wrap around children's fingers and tape into place. The stencils include all five monkeys, mom and the doctor. Children can practice taking away one money after each verse until no more monkeys are jumping on the bed.
ChristianPreschoolPrintables.com offers free stencils for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and bushes for them to hide behind. You can add a tree with a snake drawn on it to recreate this familiar Bible story. Adam and Eve wrap around the fingers, but you might put the tree and bushes on craft sticks.
For a simple puppet project, use felt and craft items. The finger puppets require mostly scrap pieces of fabric, yarn and trimmings. You can recreate characters for almost any story you choose and invite the children to tell the story with the puppets.