Make the most of some ordinary household supplies to create this fun puppet craft that hails from Indonesia. Your child will create movable figures that she can use for puppet shows to delight the whole family. In addition to having fun making these puppets, she'll develop her fine motor skills and learn a little bit about another culture. This is a great activity for any time of the year, but it also makes for some great Halloween entertainment!
What You Need:
- Thick black construction paper
- Downloadable black cat template
- Long, thin bamboo skewers (12-15” minimum length, available in grocery stores)
- Brass “brad” paper fasteners
- Hole punch
- Strong craft glue or hot glue gun
What You Do:
- Download the sections of our cat template, or trace your own puppet figure onto heavy black construction paper. You might also try a witch, a storybook character, or another animal, for example. You can explain to your child that shadow puppets are a centuries-old Indonesian tradition meant to entertain and inspire. Now it's her turn to try her hand at puppeteering!
- Cut along the lines to create your puppet pieces.
- Fasten each limb at the joints (near the edge where the two pieces meet) with paper fasteners so that each part is movable.
- Use the hole punch, or the end of a large needle, to create hole for the puppet’s eyes.
- Now you’re ready to attach the skewers, which your puppeteer will hold. One will go behind the puppet's hands and the other will go at the joint on the puppet's feet. Attach the skewers to the back of the puppet with a dab of craft glue or with hot glue from a glue gun.
- To make a shadow puppet show, hang a plain white sheet (not too thick) , and place a light behind it.
- Your puppeteer will sit near the light behind the sheet and move the puppet, making the sheet into a sort of projector screen for the audience.
- You can also have your child move the puppet as you shine a light on it, making a moving shadow along a wall.
This is just the beginning! You and your child can make a whole cast of puppet characters to tell stories with. Encourage your child to tell stories by playing around with the many ways the puppet can move. Invite guests over this Halloween and dazzle them with an amazingly spooky shadow puppet show!
By Julie Williams
Julie Williams, M.A. Education, taught middle and high school History and English for seventeen years. Since then, she has volunteered in elementary classrooms while raising her two sons and earning a master's in school administration. She has also been a leader in her local PTA.
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