How to Make a Squirrel Finger Puppet

Add a faux acorn to your puppet's accessories.

Design a squirrel finger puppet that only uses one finger for operation, which is ideal for younger children to play with. Use the finger puppet along with a menagerie of other finger puppets for a performance. Or, encourage your child to act out a squirrel-themed story with the puppet as you read aloud. While the typical squirrel has gray fur, you can create the squirrel in any color of the rainbow as a way to develop your child’s imaginative processes.

Things You'll Need

• 6-inch square gray felt
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• 3-inch square gray craft fur
• Gray pipe cleaner
• 2 small googly eyes
• 1-inch square white felt

Instructions

1. Cut a 3-inch square of gray felt. Roll the felt around your finger and form a snug fit for the base of the puppet. Use hot glue to secure the overlapping edge.

2. Cut a 3-inch-long S that is 1-inch thick on a piece of gray felt; make it in a bubble letter shape with curved edges. Trace the S on a piece of gray craft fur. Flip the S over and trace a second S shape on the craft fur that is a mirror image. Cut the two S shapes out of the fur. Hot-glue the fur S’s to each side of the felt S so the furry sides are facing out.

3. Place the felt roll upright. Attach the S backwards at the back and bottom of the felt roll, so that the bottom end of the S is connected to the roll to make the tail of the squirrel. Use hot glue to attach the tail.

4. Put the finger puppet on your finger by sticking the finger through the bottom. Twist a gray pipe cleaner around the top of the finger puppet in a tight spiral. Use hot glue to secure the ends of the pipe cleaner to the felt base.

5. Attach two small googly eyes to the pipe cleaner face using hot glue. Cut two 1/4-inch-long equilateral triangles out of white felt. Hot-glue these triangles to the mouth area of the face for the squirrel’s teeth with flat sides running across the top side so the teeth are pointed to complete the puppet.