How to Make a Paper Plate Puppet

Before you can have a puppet show, you'll need a key ingredient--puppets. Luckily, you can make your own puppets using things that are around your house. Paper plate puppets can be designed to look like just about anything including animals, bugs or faces. Here's how you can make a ladybug paper plate puppet.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 2 paper plates
• Glue
• Black colored paper (red and white paper optional)
• Markers, crayons or paints

1. Cut your ladybug's legs out of black colored paper. You will need six legs, three for each side. You can make these legs like rectangles, or you can cut curved legs like crescent moons.

2. Put a paper plate in front of you. Have it sit so that the edges of the plate curve up toward you.

3. Glue down your puppet's legs to the rim of your paper plate. Make sure there are three legs on each side of your paper plate.

4. Take your second paper plate, and flip the paper plate over so that the backside is facing you. This is the side you are going to decorate.

5. Draw your ladybug's body on your second paper plate. Start with the head. Measure about 3 inches down from the top of your plate. Make a mark at the 3-inch mark. Draw a line straight across your paper plate through the three inch mark. This section will be the ladybug's head.

6. Color your ladybug with crayons, markers or glue on colored paper. The ladybug's head will be black with white eyes. The ladybug's body will be red with black spots.

7. Put the two plates together so that the insides of the plates face one another. Then, glue or staple only the top halves of the plates. The bottom half needs to remain unglued so that you can put your hand in it.

8. Wait for your puppet to dry. Then put your hand inside and enjoy.

Tips & Warnings

• You can make a bumblebee puppet by making a couple of small changes. Instead of cutting legs in step one, cut out the bee's wings. Then color your bee with black and yellow stripes.
• You can make a face puppet easily too. Instead of cutting out legs in step one, you can cut out ears. Then decorate your second plate with eyes, a nose and a mouth.