Puppets in Education
It's Fun and Easy to Make Puppets
Looking for some easy to make puppets? A few recycled materials and a little imagination is all it takes to easily create a variety of interesting character puppets. Perhaps some of these old standbys will be helpful or will spark some new ideas for making puppets in the classroom.
Quick Jump to our latest free puppet patterns:
Pattern for Animal Marionette puppets - main materials .... paper or plastic cups, construction paper, string, craft sticks
Learn how to make a puppet out of a glove - main materials .... stray gloves, craft foam or construction paper
Ever thought of puppets for easy craft ideas for home, school or church?
Shoebox Theatre
• draw a scene on paper and glue it on the back and 
base of the box
• cutout cardboard figures and attach to straws
• poke holes in sides of box for straws to slide through
• box lid can be cut to make a pull up curtain
These mini theatres work very well for retelling favourite stories. It's excellent language practice for all students. Try some well-known stories to hear and stories to read in English and in French. You may even find some new stories to retell with your easy to make puppets.
Paper Puppet Cylinder Heads
• make 2 construction paper cylinders, one a bit smaller to fit inside the other
• cut two pieces of black paper for the mouth -glue one piece on the top cylinder and the other on the bottom cylinder
• decorate the rest of the head and add a paper handle to the back of the top cylinder
• slide the bottom cylinder up and down to make the puppet talk
Mops and Dusters
• glue or tape eyes, nose, mouth,ears etc. to make humorous
characters
Wooden Spoon Puppets
•paint a face on either side of the spoon,
add hair with wool
•braid arms out of wool
• wrap with small piece of material
Paper Bag Puppets
• use a small square-bottom paper bag
• fold over part becomes the mouth
Egg Carton Centipede
• cut the bottom of an egg carton in half
• add legs and antennae with pipe cleaners
A little more detailed, but these are still easy to make puppets ....
Styrofoam Ball Hand Puppet
• with fingers poke indentations into ball to make eye sockets and brow, cheeks, nose and some definition or the mouth
• colour face with markers, add hair with wool or felt
• cut and sew a body shaped piece of material
• poke a hole into the bottom of the head and glue in the neck of the material body
Pop-up Cone puppet
• small styrofoam ball for head
• wooden skewer for stick
• conical plastic coffee cup liner
• cut out material for body and glue or sew sides together and glue onto rim of cup
• poke stick up through cup and material
• glue material and stick into head
• clip memory fact card to arms if used for practice game
Glove Puppets
Great for retelling fables
in English or French!
• find some gloves
• make a variety of characters
by folding fingers in different
ways
• decorate as much as you like
Free puppet pattern
Animal Marionettes
Use a variety of sizes of paper
or plastic cups to create animal
marionettes
- also called a string puppets.
Learn how to make a puppet
on strings.
Overhead Shadows• draw scenes on acetate
• cut out tiny shadow characters from cardboard
• attach to thin sticks or strips of stiff cardboard
to move around on overhead scenery while audience watches the screen
Need More Plans for Puppets?
Try these links:
Lois Walker - Paper Cup Marionette
The Puppeteers' Cooperative - 68 Ways to Make Really Big Puppets
Puppet Builder - detailed plans for foam puppets
Crochet Finger Puppets - fairy tales at your fingertips
Try some other Stimulating Activities for Children
