Fun with puppets!

We all love animals.  This is a perfect way to make your own animal!  Kids love this project especially after visiting the zoo, or reading a great book on animals.  This is also a fun project to alter into "fantasy animals" and see what kids come up with in their imaginations.  The last time I worked with a group of children who made their own animal puppets, they went back to school and put on a puppet show with their teacher. They're quite effective, really fun to make and inexpensive.  I highly recommend this project for birthday parties, summer camp, a rainy day or even sleepovers.

Materials You'll Need For Wild Animal Puppet:

• A Paper Lunch Bag (brown paper)
• Multi -colored construction paper
• Crayons, Oil Pastels or Markers
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Glue Stick

How to Assemble Your Wild Animal Puppet:

1. The Animal Hair or Ears and any Tails are in 2 different parts.  Draw out these parts using a pencil.
2. Cut out these parts and begin to glue them onto the bag.  For the hair, you are using the BACK side of the bag.  Starting with the "bottom" of the bag, where it folds over, glue the the hair at the top of the bag.  And, on the back of the bag towards the bottom, is where you glue the tail, so its coming from behind.   See example below if you need a guide.
3. Draw on the face, make sure the top part of the face ends at the fold of the bag.  and the bottom lip begins on the bag after the folded part.   Draw in the eyes, nose, lips and fur. You can even draw on top of the added on construction paper to make it look more real.
4. Carefully lift up the top of the folded part of the bag and color in what the inside of the mouth looks like - teeth, tongue, darkness...
5. Then draw the rest of the body at the bottom of the bag.
6. If time permits, you can draw the back of the animal on the back side of the bag.

Tip: If you have time and materials, kids can add on paws and some tentacles from behind the bag too.

And, remember:  Art is a practice.  The more you practice, the better your work becomes!