Have a blast with your child helping her create a self-portrait puppet! She can use it to stage her own puppet theater and for storytelling. This project is helpful for children to learn the parts of the human face and practice cutting and gluing. It's great for groups of kids at birthday parties, sleepovers and summer camps.
What You Need:
- Brown paper lunch bag
- Flesh-colored construction paper
- Colored construction paper for hair
- Crayons, Oil Pastels or Markers
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Glue Stick
What You Do:
- Discuss with your child what the parts of the face are, and what color her hair is.
- Help her to draw the shape of her face in three parts with a pencil on flesh-colored paper:
- The top of her head to the bottom of her UPPER lip
- From her bottom lip all the way to the chin
- Both of her ears
- She can now cut out each of these parts. She may require a bit of help from mom or dad to cut on the lines with safety scissors.
- Flip the closed paper bag over, so the “bottom” of the bag, is at the top with the folded-
- over side facing up.
- She can glue the top of the head starting at the top of the bag. Her paper chin can be glued under the fold of the “bottom” of the bag. Finally, she can glue her ears onto either side of her face.
- Now she can draw out her hairstyle on construction paper, cut it out and glue it so it overlaps the ears!
- Help remind her of the parts of her face and she can draw and color them onto the face of the bag. Make sure the top part of the face ends at the fold of the bag.
- After drawing the eyes, nose, lips (bottom lip on chin piece), she can draw lines or hair ornaments on her paper hair and add final lines inside the ears.
- Carefully have her lift up the “bottom” of the folded part of the bag and color in what the inside of the mouth looks like - teeth, tongue, darkness...
- Finally, she can draw in any clothing she would like to wear on the bottom part of the bag.
Tip: If you have time and materials, your child can add on arms and hands from behind the bag to create even more personality!
By Ellen Dean
Ellen Dean has worked as an art educator in Thailand since 2005, working with both children and adults. She has also been a professional artist working in painting, sculpture and photography since 1996.
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