School Holiday Project 46: Making Puppets That Move

The long December holidays are almost upon us again and  it is time to start gathering ideas and materials to keep the kids busy with. Making puppets is always a fun activity, and that is exactly what we do in today's blog. I love how open this project is to every child's own creative inclination. They can paint, colour, collage with papers, use crayons, or whatever tickles their fancy, to decorate the puppets. They love the idea of constructing the different parts and seeing it all come together. It is almost like building a puzzle.

I seldom throw any packaging away without first retaining the large pieces of cardboard for use with the kids. These strong and sturdy pieces of cardboard is brilliant for a host of projects. Today proved this once again. My boy child requested a zebra puppet. Go figure! I drew the puppets real quick, while they watched and gave instructions from the side.

The girl child wanted a pregnant woman, as their neighbour is almost due and she is fascinated by the idea of women having the ability to carry babies in their 'stomachs'. I managed to convince her to go for something more conventional.

The boy wanted to paint his zebra.

The girl wanted to use colouring pencils.

He used Dala Craft Paint in White and Black Acrylic Paint to paint the zebra. He was very impressed by how easy the lines were to paint if you use an angle brush turned sideways. He just learned a new skill, without even realizing the importance of this one small lesson for future art projects.

As the cardboard is very thick and difficult to cut out, it was left to me to do. I cut the two front feet apart as these would be made to move. When we were done, he requested we do the same with the tail and it worked brilliantly.

Older kinds can poke holes through the puppets themselves, but with the younger ones, I do it as the awl is quite sharp and the fingers are still a little clumsy.

They inserted the split pins themselves.

For some strange reason kids always find split pins fascinating. I have to confess that I love using them as well.

Here are the two finished products side by side. Or so I thought!

I lost the boy to the garden, but the girl had some ideas about decorating the dress still.

They were good ideas!

Fun written all over this little face!

And look at that masculine pride!

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
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Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
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