The only thing you need to make some fun and interesting puppets is paper that you probably have in your craft box. Folding the paper properly is not as difficult as it sounds if you follow step-by-step. If you show your child how, even a preschooler can get the hang of it in no-time. I warn you– making these little puppets is addictive! The ease of making and decorating brings on endless inspirations for creating one after the other. Before you know it, your child will be churning out batches of these little paper puppet buddies.
To begin, take a piece of regular copier or construction paper. Hold it in front of you vertically. Divide it into three equal, vertical columns. Fold the left column over the center, then fold the right column over that. You should now have one, long, tripled strip.
Take your strip and fold it in half, but horizontally this time, making the ends meet. We’ll call that horizontal fold the “center fold.” Take the top end of the strip and fold it back down, so the edge meets the center fold. Turn it over, and repeat the same with the remaining edge.
Now hold the paper with the center fold and two edges facing you. If you look into it, there should be two slots for your fingers– one above the center fold, and one below it. Place your pointer and middle finger together into the upper slot, and your thumb into the lower slot. If you open and close your fingers, you will see that the opposite end of the paper opens and closes like a mouth. This is your puppet!
Your puppet is now ready for decoration. For a minimum of fuss and muss, this can be done with simple markers or colored pencils. Let your child draw on some eyes, a nose, or make any distinguishing facial features she sees fit.
Another great way to decorate these puppets is to get out the collection of paper scraps you have no-doubt accumulated from other craft projects. Use them to cut out features, then glue them onto the puppet with white craft glue or a glue stick. White circles with smaller, colored circles glued onto them make great looking eyes. Make big half-circles for ears and attach them to the edges so that they extend outward. Try cutting some strips and gluing it to the top for a crazy head of hair. Likewise, glue some strips to the chin for a funky beard.
Don’t overlook decorating the inside of the mouth! Open the mouth of the puppet and put in some teeth, or a big tongue. You might want to glue some long, white teeth to the roof of the mouth that overhang the edge of the bottom part to create tusks or fangs.
If you are into paper crafts such as card making or scrapbooking, let the kids get into your small paper punches to make features for their puppets. This is also a great way to utilize a lot of those tiny scraps of paper that have been building up in your collection.
If you are going to be doing crafts with a group of children, or your child and a friend seem bored one day, just let them gather around the table. Put out some markers, crayons, colored pencils, glue, and lots of paper, and you will soon feel like you are in the middle of a puppet factory.
