Four puppets, four rhymes they already know by heart, and a cardboard box stage. The first performing a small child ever does - because the words are already in there.
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The reason this works is that nothing has to be learned. Baa Baa Black Sheep is already in their head, so the only new thing is holding the puppet up and singing it out loud.
My shy one would not perform anything for months. She sang an entire rhyme from behind a cardboard box within ten minutes, because the box was doing the being-looked-at, not her.
We now have a bedtime version. Two rhymes, two puppets, lights low. It has replaced about half of the stalling that used to happen at bedtime.
Cut a large rectangle out of one side of the box and stand it on a low table or the floor.
Clip the tea towel across the top as a curtain. Opening and closing it is a job in itself, and a favourite one.
Choose four rhymes everyone already knows - Baa Baa Black Sheep, Incy Wincy, Old MacDonald, Twinkle Twinkle.
Match a puppet to each rhyme. It does not need to be a good match; a duck can be a sheep and nobody minds.
Sing the first one together with the puppet up, so the pattern is obvious before they are asked to solo.
Then step back and be the audience. Sit down, be quiet, and clap loudly at the end of every single one.
Add the torch for Twinkle Twinkle with the room lights off - this is always the highlight.
Hand out tickets and do a proper show for another grown-up in the evening, with a curtain call and a bow.
Use rhymes they already know cold. A brand new song turns this into a lesson, and the whole point is that the words come out without effort. Sit down when you become the audience - standing over them makes it feel like a test.
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