Easy Designs For Kids Homemade Puppets

Contrary to what many people think, homemade puppets are not outdated

Kids of all ages still love to make them and play with them.

Parents, childcare professionals, and even educators can take advantage of these low cost homemade puppet designs to enrich learning and playtime.

Puppets are a great way to extend reading comprehension and other lessons. Children who can retell a story effectively will advance faster in reading and other areas of education. By using puppets, a child can communicate clearly without being self-conscious or nervous.

Additionally, studies have shown that puppets can be very therapeutic in helping children who are dealing with traumatic situations like death, abuse, and divorce to work through these issues in a healthy way.


Follow the instructions below to begin creating your own homemade puppets today. These ideas are easy for kids ages 4-10yrs to make, with some assistance and direction. Get them involved from the very beginning by letting them build their own puppet. Ownership of the puppet will make them much more excited to play with it.

Tongue Depressor Puppets

Materials:
Large wooden tongue depressors or craft sticks, yarn, craft glue, small plastic google eyes, scissors, colored permanent markers (consider Sharpie).

Directions:

1. You may want to already have a few example puppets made ahead of time to show the child.



2. Discuss with the child what type of puppet they are going to make. Suggest that the make their first puppet to look like themselves.



3. Cover the work area with newspaper or butcher paper.



4. The amount of assistance each child needs will depend on their age and fine motor skill development. Children 8 years and older should be able to complete the entire project with little guidance.



5. Allow the child to pick out a hair color from the yarn. Ask them to explain to you if it should be short or long and how it should be glued on. Then attach the hair to one end of the tongue depressor.



6. Continue in the same manner with the eyes.



7. Finally, use the colored markers to draw the remainder of the face and clothes. Give younger children the choice of what color pants/skirt and shirt they would like their puppet to have. Consider adding small details like buttons and pockets to really jazz it up.

 

Garden Glove Puppets

This is a fun homemade puppets design for retelling stories and putting on plays with multiple characters.

Possible Themes:

Farm Animals, Family, Friends, Three Little Pigs, and Cinderella

Materials:
White canvas garden gloves (these can be purchased at any hardware store), yarn, craft glue, small plastic google eyes, scissors, colored permanent markers (consider Sharpie).

Directions:

1. You may want to already have a few example puppets made ahead of time to show the child.



2. Discuss with the child what type of puppets they are going to make. Write down each puppet as the child lists them off. Some kids will want certain puppets on certain fingers. So, make sure to discuss which one should be placed on each finger before beginning.



3. Cover the work area with newspaper or butcher paper.



4. The amount of assistance each child needs will depend on their age and fine motor skill development. Children 8 years and older should be able to complete the entire project with little guidance.



5. Allow the child to pick out a hair color from the yarn. Ask them to explain to you if it should be short or long and how it should be glued on. Then attach the hair.



6. Continue in the same manner with the eyes.



7. Finally, use the colored markers to draw the remainder of the face and clothes. Give younger children the choice of what color pants/skirt and shirt they would like their puppet to have. Consider adding small details like buttons and pockets to really jazz it up.



8. Since this glove provides the option for multiple puppets, you will need to repeat steps five through seven until all puppets are completed.



9. Don't forget to play with the new homemade puppets right away.

Paper Bag Puppets Perfected

Most people know how to make the ever-popular paper bag puppet. But there are a few materials you can include to really liven them up and make kids more interested.

Materials:
Paper lunch bags, wallpaper samples, yarn, craft glue, large plastic google eyes, buttons, scissors, pencils, ruler, colored permanent markers (consider Sharpie).

Directions:

1. You may want to already have a few example puppets made ahead of time to show the child.



2. Discuss with the child what type of puppet they are going to make. Suggest that the make their first puppet to look like themselves.



3. Cover the work area with newspaper or butcher paper.



4. The amount of assistance each child needs will depend on their age and fine motor skill development. Children 8 years and older should be able to complete the entire project with little guidance.



5. Allow the child to pick out a hair color from the yarn. Ask them to explain to you if it should be short or long and how it should be glued on. Attach the hair to the closed end of the paper lunch bag.



6. Continue in the same manner with the eyes.



7. Use the colored markers to draw the remainder of the face.



8. Have the child select which wallpaper they would like to use for the shirt and pants/skirt. Use a pencil and ruler to draw the cutting lines onto the back of the wallpaper. Cut out and attach the wallpaper clothes to the paper bag.



9. Finally, consider adding small details like buttons and pockets to really jazz up your homemade puppets.

If you have puppet ideas that work well in your household, please share them with us! (use the form at the bottom of this page) You will be automatically entered in our next competition

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