It is that time of year again. Time to make our puppets. I have students in 4th grade this year and some tell me they still have there puppets from kindergarten. That just warms my heart. We begin with basic recycled materials and masking tape. I invest quite a bit of my county money on masking tape. The cheap 1" type.
They each get two or three magazine pages and crumple them into a ball to make the head. They then tear masking tape to make the ball actually stay and look like a ball. Once your paper ball looks like a smooth ball students get a recycled cup or a yogurt cup, whatever the parents donated that year, and they attach their "head" to the back of the cup. This takes about 35 minutes and each child writes their name on the inside of the cut when they are done. If you have a few minutes to kill I give the kids markers to draw in the face. Just know the next class they paint these with skin tone paint.
Day 2: they paint their entire puppets skin tones. I normally let kids choose their color for a variety of skin tones.
Day 3: I pre-cut long rectangles of tissue paper and have kids "dress" their puppets. If you have more than 35 minutes you can have kids add crumpled tissue paper as buttons or ribbons and yarn for belts. Do not let kids add anything on the head for hair day is the best day
Day 4: Hair day! kids learn to unroll yarn around their open fingers and cut various strands all at once. We reviewed where on our heads do hair grow by touching our heads.
Day 5: salon day. Students get a mirror and give their puppets haircut as if their puppets were in a salon. This is a very fun day for the students and each puppet is the pride of that child.
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Here are some puppets after their haircuts....ready for accessories....
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The last day is accessories day....kids get to choose from a whole bunch of recycled materials donated by the parents, current and from the past. I lined up the puppets once they were done and took "class photos" of them. Students will be getting their puppets back once they are done being displayed in the school. Please ask your child about their puppet.
One thing I did different this year was let the kids play with their puppets in class. Below are images from that day.
