How to Make Animal Puppets

Puppets are a source of delight for small children. They tend to bubble over with laughter when you place your arm inside of a puppet and use your hand to make the mouth speak. Pair the moving mouth with an animated voice and funny sayings and you can provide a great deal of entertainment. Another great thing about puppets is that they are relatively easy to make. You can easily instruct your child or your classroom of students to make animal puppets with relative ease.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper lunch bags
• Scissors
• Googly eyes
• Construction paper
• Glue
• Socks (preferably white, adult sized)
• Markers

1. Spread out all your supplies onto an empty table and prepare it for use by deciding on the type of animal puppets you are going to create. If you are going to create a Dalmatian puppet for instance, you will want to cut black circles for spots out of the construction paper. You will also want to cut out black strips for whiskers, black or white ear pieces and a black nose. Prepare as many materials as you need for the different types of animals you want make.

2. Make your animal puppets by using paper lunch bags. Place the bag on the table so that the folded flap is at the top. You may want to put your hand inside so you get a better idea of how it will look when you move the flap, which will represent your puppet's mouth. Decorate your puppet by gluing onto the bag the pieces you prepared. For a Dalmatian puppet, you will want to glue the black spots all over the puppet. Glue two googly eyes onto the folded flap as well as the black nose. You may want to attach a pink tongue below the flap to show off the dog's mouth. Attach ears to the left and right top corners of the flap with glue. Wait for the glue to dry before you enjoy playing with your puppet.

3. Use socks to make animal puppets. Old socks make great puppets as well. They are especially popular when it comes to creating snakes; however, with a little creativity, you can make any animal you desire. Rather than decorating the sock with construction paper, use your markers to draw the features of your animal. If you are making a cat, use your markers to color the sock orange. Use a brown marker to drawn in two ears and a black marker to make a nose at the tip of the sock. Glue two googly eyes above your nose and allow them to dry.