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Parable of The Sower Puppets

parable of the sower ears of corn puppets

by Peter Gardner
We needed to perform the parable of the sower using puppets.  Some bright spark said "What if we could actually have the corn growing".  This got the old grey matter working and the following is what I came up with.

We already had a character to be the sower and a bird puppet, all we needed was the three types of corn.  Looking in my local pound shop I came across three hairy dusters, the sort that Ken Dodd uses as tickling sticks.  They were green in colour and came in three sizes, small, medium and large.  Just what the doctor ordered I thought.

 Corn puppets prior to growing          Corn puppets after growing
                          Corn prior to growing                               Corn after growing
I also purchased a short length white plastic waste disposal pipe from the local D.I.Y. shop and some green crepe paper.  I pinched one of my wife's wire coat hangers out of the wardrobe and also made up a long length of French Knitting using green wool but you could use a length of magician's rope dyed green.

Each brush is covered with a length of the white plastic tube the same length as the brush handle and the plastic tube is rolled in green crepe paper.  The crepe paper is stuck with clear adhesive tape and the top is cut back to represent leaves or ears.

The short brush has a short length of wire coat hanger fixed by a loop to the bottom of it's handle.  When the wire is pushed up the brush comes out as though growing but as soon as the loop is reached it topples over.  This represents the corn that had no roots and when it springs up it gets withered by the Sun.
The medium sized brush has a long length of coat hanger wire running up alongside it inside the tube.  The top is bent over at right angles and a long length of green French knitting or green rope is attached to this.  When the brush handle is pushed up to expose the brush, the wire is also pushed up and twisted, this causes the French knitting to wind itself around the brush and choke it.  This represents the corn that grew up among the weeds and thistles. 
The last brush, the larger one is simply pushed up and represents the corn that grew and produced much crop.
During the reading of the parable, Jesus explains what each type of seed represents so you have to do a quick re-set of the corn puppets so that you can repeat the actions for the explanation.

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ears of corn parable of the sower puppets

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Revised: July 29, 2007.
Copyright © 2005 FCMUK