Hand puppets are rather inexpensive. You can find them in many toy departments. You may also make your own. It is not difficult to use various types of characters.  They can also be purchased online, prices range from fairly reasonable to very expensive.  I have found that the more simple the better. Sure the more expensive puppets work even better but if you are simply entertaining in your classroom or Sunday school room the cheaper puppets will work fine.  My wife and I over the years have learned to work on little to no budget; we even learned how to make our own puppets.  Now having a creative mind really works when you are working on little to no budget because you can create something spectacular out of nothing!  I can look at a room full of “junk” and begin seeing things come together.  We once built an entire fall festival on a budget of less than $100.00 and it was a total hit.  Not only did the kids enjoy it but the adults kept talking about it.   I remember once that for a back to school puppet show I wanted to create something new so I designed some pencil puppets, they were a hit.  We simply took some foam, rolled into tubes and painted them to look like pencils.  The same thing can be used for crayons… simple, cheap and mind blowing!!!