Homemade Puppets

• Before getting started on your puppets it's a good idea to use a muffin tin to hold your decorating items.

• Table-tennis balls, beads, soda-bottle lids, lids from milk jugs and film-canister lids all make great eyes for puppets.

• Hair clips and tongs are household items that can be easily transformed into puppets. Just decorate with things like pipe cleaners, felt and milk-jug lids.

• A sofa, pulled away from the wall, or kitchen island works great as a stage for homemade puppets.

Cereal Box Puppets

Materials:

cereal box, emptied and cleaned out
pencil
scissors
paint
construction paper

Steps:

1. With the front of the box facing toward you, draw a horizontal line around the middle of the box.

2. Have an adult cut around the line. Do not cut the back of the box. Instead, make a fold on that line so you can bend back the two halves or the box.

3. Insert your fingers and thumb in the openings to test the mouth of the puppet.

4. Paint the box or cover with construction paper.

Materials:

pencil
paper
scissors
felt
stick pins
fabric glue
hole punch
shoelace

Steps:

1. Begin by tracing an adult's hand on a piece of paper, making sure that the thumb and pinkie are extended to the sides and that the three middle fingers are together.

2. Cut out and place on top of two pieces of felt, pin together and cut out.

3. Fabric glue works well to hold the pieces of felt together, or you can punch holes around the outer edges of the felt with hole punch, then string a shoelace through the holes.

4. Use the scraps of felt from the cutout to make letters of the alphabet. Glue to the puppet.

5. Personalize and detail the puppet so that it fits the letter of the alphabet it is wearing. For example: For the letter "P," make a purple, polka-dot pig with a peace sign, pearl and pompon.

Variations

• If you want to change the puppet periodically, use a hook-and-loop fastener instead of permanently gluing on the decorations.

• A simplified version of ABC puppets can also be made with lunch bags instead of felt.

Materials:

stray glove
hook-and-loop fastener
scissors
small stuff animal
thread

Steps:

1. Begin by cutting a piece of hook-and-loop fastener. Adhere one side to the top of the glove and the other side to the bottom of a small stuffed animal.

2. Secure the hook-and-loop with thread for a little extra security.

3. A fun variation for storytime is to attach shapes (with hook and loop) from your child's favorite story to the fingertips of a glove. Store shapes on top of pencil by adhering them with floral foam.