We are back on safari with another adorable animal puppet for you and your little one! Whether you’re new here or already joined us for our monkey, tiger, and giraffe puppets, this lovable zebra will be a welcome addition to your family (or zoo). Crafters of any age can make it easily using inexpensive materials you probably already have at home.

If paper bags aren’t already a household staple for you, it’s worth picking up a pack next time you’re at the dollar store or Target. They’re really handy for crafts, they don’t take up a lot of space, and they’re even recyclable. We do a lot of paper bag puppets here; it’s great for kids to have such easy access to making their own toys.

Because they’re only made of paper, they store flat – and they won’t last forever, so you’ll have easy opportunities to rotate your puppet population, keeping things fresh and exciting without building up clutter.

Paper bag puppets are a great introduction to puppet play. They require almost no skill to operate – just stick your hand in the bag, reach your fingers all the way to the end to control the head, and start performing! Puppets can help children express themselves through role playing and social interaction.

The adult can also use puppets to model language and social skills in an engaging way. Kids often feel more comfortable talking about difficult things through puppets that they aren’t ready to talk about head-on. I personally believe every child should have access to puppets and plenty of opportunities to use them.

These puppets are even more special for kids because they can make the toys themselves! This craft is suitable for any age. It’s all cutting and gluing – a perfect way to have fun while practicing these essential fine motor skills, as well as following directions!  If your crafter is very young, you can modify the project to support their individual skill level:

• Trace the template onto colored paper before starting.
• Print the template on cardstock and have the child color the pieces, instead of having to trace them onto construction paper. Bonus: This also adds coloring to the motor skills they’ll practice!
• Even toddlers can make the puppet if a grown-up or older child helps with the cutting!
• Instead of cutting out the more complex zig-zag shape of the mane, you can cut it with a straight edge and have the child snip fringes along the side.

Zebras always look so snazzy and ready for an occasion with their bold black stripes. But you never know if they might want to try on another color sometime, so feel free to let your or your child’s imagination run wild when designing this puppet! That’s the best part of arts and crafts – anything goes!

This really isn’t complicated, so let’s get started already!

What you need

• Colored paper
• Paper bag
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Glue
• Markers
• Zebra puppet template (free download at the end of this post)

How to make a zebra paper bag puppet

1. Print the template and cut out all the pieces. Trace each piece onto the colored paper of your choice – I used black for the mane, hooves, and tip of the tail; white for the head, tail, legs, body, eyes, and ears; pink for the inside of the ears and gray for the muzzle (that’s the front part of its face where the mouth and nose are). Cut out the parts from the colored paper.

2. Glue the (pink) inner ear cutouts onto the larger ear pieces. Glue the (black) tip to the end of the tail cutout, the hoof cutouts to the bottoms of the legs, and the muzzle/mouth area to the bottom of the head.

3. Use a marker to draw pupils on the eye cutouts and glue them to the head. Glue the ears to the back of the head so they stick out at the top on each side.

4. Use a marker to draw an outline around the eyes and to add nose and mouth features. Draw stripes on the top and sides of the face.

5. Glue the mane to the back of the head, sticking out of the top and side (behind the ear)

6. Cut out white paper to cover one flat side of the paper bag (you can trace the bag onto the paper, or estimate)

7. Glue that white paper onto the paper bag. It doesn’t matter which side you put it on, but that will become the front of the puppet.

8. Position the paper bag so that the bottom of the bag is the top of the puppet. Flatten the bottom of the bag against the flat, white side of the bag. Glue the zebra head to the bottom of the bag/top of the puppet.

9. Glue the tail to the side of the paper bag. Glue the legs with the hooves to the bottom of the front. You can let them stick out a little from the bottom to make them more visible.

10. Use markers to add stripes to the zebra.

Download the Zebra Paper Bag Puppet Template

Your zebra paper bag puppet is complete. Which puppet would you like to see next? Comment below!

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This adorable puppet craft was inspired by a classic, popular fairy tale – though as always, there is no limit to what your imagination can act out with it! 

Puppet play is a fantastic way for children of all ages to express themselves and hone their budding acting skills. They can gain even more pride and ownership of this process when using puppets they made by themselves, like this one!

Like most fables, the classic story of Red Riding Hood offers an opportunity to discuss personal safety, and using puppets makes it even more fun and approachable. 

Grab another puppet and act it out together with your child to explore the different possible ways the characters could have acted in the story and how that might alter the outcomes.

If you’d like a full set of Little Red Riding Hood puppets with the script, you can find that here. Those are easy color & craft ones that have less assembly.

The instructions below are for a one-sided puppet. For an added benefit of teaching children to recognize and express different feelings, you can print the template twice and draw a different emotion on one of the faces (for example, scared or sad). 

Glue one to the front and one to the back of the puppet. While acting out different parts of the story, show the side that better expresses the character’s emotion at that time.

While Red Riding Hood was the inspiration behind this project, you can feel free to substitute any colors you like to make a more general sweet old-timey country girl. 

No matter what you decide, with the free template and instructions below you’re sure to end up happily ever after!

Want to complete the story? Simply pick up any grandma and wolf puppet and put on a puppet show!

What you’ll need

• Paper bag (you can try starting with a red one to make things cooler!
• Colored papers (such as construction paper, cardstock, or colored copy paper)
• Markers
• Glue (I recommend tacky)
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Template – available at the end of this post

How to make a Little Red Riding Hood Puppet

1. Choose colored papers for each of the template parts: head and arms, cheeks, hair, cloak and hood, shoes, sleeves, apron, and bow. Cut out the template shapes, trace them onto the colored papers, and carefully cut out the colored shapes.

You can also cut out a simple basket shape from brown, yellow, or tan colored paper.

2. Glue the hair cutout along the top of the head shape. If you’d like, you can glue on some matching yarn to make the hair more 3-D and add texture.

Glue the straight side of the arm shapes to the straight side of the sleeve cutouts, with the sleeve on top.

Glue the small, round piece to the center of the bow.

3. Glue the blushing cheeks near the bottom of each side of the head shape. Trim the edges if needed.

Glue the head near the bottom of the hood, with the pointy side of the hood on top.

4. Glue the bow to the bottom middle of the hood.

Use a marker to draw a face on the head.

5. Choose a colored paper to be the base of Red Riding Hood’s dress. (If you’re making the cape red, choose a different color for the dress.) Measure the paper bag or trace it onto the colored paper, and cut it out.

6. Glue the apron cutout onto the center of that colored paper rectangle.

7. Glue the paper with the apron onto the paper bag. The open side of the bag will be the bottom of the puppet. The flat side of the apron goes on top.

8. Glue the cloak shape to the top of the dress base, overlapping the top of the apron.

9. Glue the shoe shapes to the bottom of the dress, along the open side of the paper bag.

10. The bottom or base of the paper bag is the top of your puppet. Flatten it toward you and glue on the head.

11. Glue an arm to each side of the puppet.

12. If you made a basket, you can glue it to one of the puppet’s hands. Alternatively, if you’d like to have her pick up and put down the basket during your storytelling, you can attach it with fun tak (also known as poster or mounting putty). If you’ve used strong cardstock as your paper, you can also try velcro as a removable/reusable option.

Now go ahead and make some more characters, or use puppets you already have to interact with Red Riding Hood in your own version of the popular fairy tale!

Download the Little Red Riding Hood Craft Template

To download, fill out the form below. You’ll be signed up for our free newsletter – unsubscribe at any time in the footer of the emails. I respect your privacy and the law and won’t share your information with anyone.

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It’s been a while since we shared a paper bag puppet, and I have the perfect one to add to your collection (or start one, if this is your first!) 

My kids tend to get very anxious when they see the doctor. By kids, I mean even babies, but especially when they’re toddlers, they sometimes have meltdowns before the doctor even appears! This paper bag doctor puppet allows children to act out or respond to realistic scenarios from their lives. If they have any anxiety or worries about going to the doctor, a friendly puppet toy is sure to help their fears disappear!

While some of our favorite puppets and puppet plays are fanciful and imaginary, there’s a lot of benefit in using real life characters and scenarios as well. The role play can help prepare children for what to expect and how to act in real situations, and it can help them process events that have already happened by re-enacting them. 

In play, the children are in charge, so they can feel safe and confident to express all their thoughts and feelings about their doctor visit experiences, both past and future. It’s also fun for kids to try out adult roles – perhaps they will be inspired for their future career!

This craft is perfect for preschool and gradeschool age crafters. They’ll be using their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination to trace, cut, and glue the parts together. Following the directions in order is also an important skill to practice at this age. 

Younger or less skilled crafters may need help cutting out the doctor’s stethoscope, since the pieces are smaller and more intricate than the other parts of this project. They’ll also need help tracing. You may also need to show your crafters how to bend the paper in half to cut a slit for step 2.

Another way to simplify the craft is to print the template onto white cardstock and have the children color the pieces with crayons or markers, instead of tracing them onto colored paper. Tracing is a great skill to practice, but we understand that young crafters still want to enjoy puppet-making even if they’re not quite up to tracing yet!

Find your comfort zone, follow your child’s lead, and have fun together making and using this friendly doctor paper bag puppet! Then, head to our archives to choose more puppet friends to join the fun!

What you’ll need

• Colored paper (you can get Colors of the World as well for more skin tone variety)
• Pencil
• Glue
• Markers
• Scissors
• Paper bag
• Doctor puppet template – download and print at the end of this post

How to assemble a doctor paper bag puppet

1. Cut out all the pieces of the template. Trace them onto the colored papers of your choice, and cut them out (if you print the template on white cardstock, you can skip this step for pieces you’re leaving white).

Use markers to draw the irises and pupils in the eye cutouts.

2. Cut a slit along the line inside the hair piece. Slide the top of the head through the slit so that the top of the hair covers the top of the head.

3. Use glue to stick the head to the hair. Glue the eyes onto the head, and use markers to draw a nose and mouth.

4. Glue the shoes to the bottom of the pants/skirt, and the hands to the bottoms of the sleeves. Glue the round accent onto the round end of the stethoscope, and the shirt (the little triangle) to the center of the collar cutout.

5. Glue the pants/skirt to the bottom of the lab coat (the big rectangle).

6. Glue the collar with the shirt at the top of the coat rectangle. You can leave a little extra room at the top (gluing the collar a little lower than the top) because the head will overlap this when the puppet is done.

7. Glue one part of the stethoscope to each shoulder of the coat.

8. Use markers to outline the collar and add buttons to the coat.

9. Take your paper bag and position it so the open end is facing down/toward you, and the base of the bag is at the top. The bottom of the bag will be the top of the puppet.

10. Flatten the bag so that the bottom is facing toward you. Glue the head to the flattened bottom of the paper bag.

11. Glue the body (coat) onto the side of the paper bag below the head (the head should overlap the body a little).

12. Glue the arms to each side of the puppet.

Download the Doctor Paper Bag Template

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You and your young friends are going to love these popsicle stick farm animals! In this post you’ll find instructions and a printable template for four of the most popular farm animals all in one place. Then, you can use the same concept with a little creativity to create even more animals to complete your farm.

This fun popsicle stick farm animal craft uses scraps of felt with paint to make some adorable friendly faces!

Once the craft is done, kids can enjoy using the animals as puppets or figures for imaginative play. We’ve talked a lot about how puppet play enhances children’s development of social, emotional, and language skills, while giving kids the satisfaction of using their own creations.

These small figures will take up hardly any space and can shine on even the smallest stages. Pack them away in a pencil case for neat storage or travel. They can even tuck into this travel activity kit for kids. 

In addition to stick puppets, these animals on a stick can be used for party decor. You can stick them together with eating utensils into a napkin ring, or stand them up in a cup or centerpiece. If you’d like to stick them into cupcakes or cake, just leave the bottom unpainted so just the clean, safe popsicle stick is in your food.

You can also use them to accessorize just about anything. I may add a couple into my pen holder just for fun. The sticks are a bit thick for bookmarks; I don’t like to risk warping my real books, but I would use them as placeholders in a journal, magazine, or planner. 

The instructions below recommend a glue gun, but you can easily make this more child-friendly by using liquid glue (tacky glue works beautifully) – it will just take a bit longer to dry. If you use a very small amount at a time, it won’t take too long.

You can help kids control the amount of glue they use by putting a little in a cup and having the child use a cotton swab to dab one drop of glue at a time.

Since the felt parts of this project are quite small, I would consider cutting them in advance for the youngest crafters or those with fine motor challenges. They’ll still have fun assembling the animals. Alternatively, you can use stiff felt, which is easier to cut, or paper, which is even easier but less durable and will not look as impressive as felt.

They can also mix and match their designs for their own imaginative creatures. Choose the materials that you like best (or that are easiest and most available to you!) and get ready to E I E I O!

What you’ll need

• Jumbo craft sticks
• Felt sheets or scraps (black, brown, pink, red, orange) 
• Googly eyes (small)
• Buttons (beige, brown, pink)
• Glue gun with glue sticks for adults finishing the assembly, tacky glue for kids
• Craft paint (white, black, brown, pink, yellow) – Use washable paint for young kids, but it won’t have the same solid coverage.
• Paint brush
• Detail Scissors 
• Black marker (preferably permanent) 
• Pencil
• Stick animals template (download free at the end of this post and print)

How to Craft Popsicle Stick Farm Animals

1. Paint one craft stick with each color paint. Let it dry, and apply a second coat if you can still see through the first one.

2. On the white stick, paint random spots with black paint. You can actually use marker for this part, it might be easier. Let it dry, then apply a second coat if necessary.

3. Print the farm animal template. Cut out each shape and trace them onto felt sheets – pig ears on pink, cow ears on black, horse ears and mane on brown, chicken beak on orange, and chicken comb on red. 

Cut all the shapes out of the felt. Cut fringes on the horse’s mane.

4. Use the glue gun to assemble the animals as follows: 

Pig: Glue the pink felt ears to the back, sticking out on top. Attach two wiggly eyes and then use a pink button for the snout below the eyes.

Horse: Glue the brown felt to the back with the mane sticking out on the side and top. Add two wiggly eyes and then a brown button for the muzzle below the eyes.

Cow: Glue the black felt ears to the back, two wiggly eyes in front, and a peach button for the muzzle.

Chicken: Glue the red felt comb on back, sticking up from the top of the stick. Add two wiggly eyes and the orange felt beak on the front.

Your popsicle stick farm animals are complete! Which other animals will you try creating?

Download the Popsicle Stick Farm Animals Template

To download, fill out the form below. You’ll be signed up for our free newsletter – unsubscribe at any time in the footer of the emails. I respect your privacy and the law and won’t share your information with anyone.

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What is it about giraffes that makes them so appealing? Is it their uniquely long necks? Their striking spot design? A little of everything? All I know is that giraffes are always a favorite. Whether it’s at the zoo, in an animal book, or even just going through the alphabet, we’re always zooming in on the giraffe. They are just every kind of awesome.

That’s why we chose the gentle giraffe as the design for this paper bag puppet. Crafting puppets is not only a fun way to exercise fine motor skills and following directions, it also opens up a whole world of storytelling and imaginative play! You can pretend to be at the zoo or on a safari with this friendly giraffe at your side.

I love paper bag puppets because they give children so much fun using only minimal supplies that can fit any budget. You can use pretty much any type of paper (I like cardstock, but construction paper or copy paper work just as well) and other embellishments you have around the house.

If your kids love to color, you can use white paper and have them color in the giraffe themselves! This keeps them entertained for longer if you have a rainy day to fill up.

Once you get started, you can make paper bag puppets in all different designs and create a whole cast of characters for your puppet play. So, let’s gather the materials and get ready to embark on this imaginative safari together!

What You’ll Need

• Colored paper or cardstock
• Paper bag
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Glue
• Markers
• Template – download and print for free at the end of this post

How to make a giraffe paper bag puppet

1.  The template includes patterns for the head, horns, ears, lower part of the face, lower body, spots, tail, belly and eyes. Choose colored papers for each of these parts – we used yellow, white, pink, brown, and orange. Trace the template shapes onto the colored papers and cut them out nicely.

2. Glue the inner ear cutouts onto the outer ear cutouts. Use a marker to draw the pupils on the eye cutouts.

3. Glue the ears at the top of the head cutout.

4. Glue the horn shapes to the top of the head, between the ears. Glue the face cutout (for the mouth and nose area) onto the bottom part of the head as shown.

5. Glue the 2 spot cutouts near the top of the head, leaving room for the eyes to go below them.

6. Glue on the eyes to finish up the giraffe’s head.

7. Use a marker to draw the giraffe’s mouth and the nostrils.

8. Glue the tail to the body on one side (it doesn’t matter which side). Glue the belly cutout onto the middle of the bottom of the body, between the legs.

9. Glue spots to the body wherever you’d like.  You can even cut out more spots to put in more places if you want.

10. Take your paper bag and position it so the opening is at the bottom, facing toward  you. The part that would be the bottom if you were using it as a bag is going to be the top of the puppet.

11. Glue the giraffe’s body to one of the large flat sides of the paper bag. The legs should point toward the open end of the bag on bottom.

12. Flatten the bottom of the bag (which is now on top) toward you. Glue the giraffe’s head to the flat bottom of the bag.

Pop the bag over your hand to make your giraffe puppet come alive! If you’ve used a glue stick it should be ready to play with very soon. If you used liquid glue, let it dry flat for a little while first.

Your giraffe paper bag puppet is complete! When you’re done, check out more of our paper puppets to craft and play!

Download the Giraffe Paper Bag Puppet

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Puppet play is fun and engaging for all ages, and these adorable stick puppets will have you or your little ones wishing to go back to the dinosaur age! A loves, loves, loves puppets, and I’m always amazed by the worlds she creates with them.

Puppets are amazing for children’s social and emotional development. They give kids the opportunity to take part in a variety of interactions without the pressures that may come along in real life. Kids can take on roles in a puppet show that they can’t or don’t access in their lives. It’s also a great way to practice all types of language skills.

While we’ve featured a number of hand puppets recently, stick puppets are a different concept. Because they’re little and don’t need to be put over your whole hand, one person can manipulate a bunch of characters in one scene. They are also easy to travel with or bring along to a playdate.

On the other hand, because they’re smaller, they require a little more fine motor skills to cut out and put together. This is a great way to move kids to a higher level if they’ve previously enjoyed making larger puppets and crafts.

You can also enlarge the template before printing if you’d like it slightly larger; the dinosaurs will still sit comfortably on a stick at 150% of their size.

One super fun thing you can do with stick puppets is make your own puppet theater. You could do this for any puppets, but the small size of stick puppets makes it so much easier.

Turn an adult-size shoebox upside-down and decorate the outside with colored paper and available materials to create your stage. You can even store the puppets inside the shoebox when you’re done playing!

Or go big! My kids love climbing into large delivery boxes that we get. We color the front of them like the scene we want to create and the stick the puppets up and over to make their show.

I’ve used simple cardstock and markers to create these puppets to show you how very easy and inexpensive it can be. But you can also let your (or your child’s) imagination go wild and use different types of materials – perhaps different kinds of paper, felt, or foam; wiggly eyes, and anything else you have on hand.

In fact, when doing a pre-made craft like this dinosaur puppet craft, I specifically like to offer different materials. My crafting style is to offer a framework, so that kids who are less naturally creative can have inspiration to start them off, but still give them space to innovate.

Grab your free dinosaur puppet craft template at the end of this post and get ready to go back in time with your new dinosaur friends!

What you need

• Colored paper
• Glue
• Pencil
• Popsicle sticks
• Markers
• Scissors

How to make a dinosaur puppet craft

1. Pick some brightly colored papers for the dinosaurs. You’ll want some contrasting colors to fully enjoy the fun patterns. Cut out the template pieces, trace them onto the colors of your choice, and cut them out carefully. Make sure to trace spots and scales for each dinosaur on a different color than you’re using for its body.

2. Glue the spot cutouts onto the triceratops and stegosaurus bodies.

3. Glue the scales to the back of the T-rex and stegosaurus, sticking out of the edge so they will be visible from the front. Glue the horns to the triceratops’s head.

4. Glue the triceratops’ head to the front of the body.

5. Complete the other dinosaurs similarly by gluing the cutouts together to match the patterns. Draw on simple faces if you’d like (totally optional).

6. Glue or tape popsicle sticks to the backs of the dinosaurs to complete the puppets.

Download the Dinosaur Puppet Craft Template:

To download, fill out the form below. You’ll be signed up for our free newsletter – unsubscribe at any time in the footer of the emails. I respect your privacy and the law and won’t share your information with anyone.

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Get your jungle gear on because today we’re going to craft a ferociously adorable tiger puppet! Using just a few materials you can find around your house and a dash of imagination, you and your little one will be ready for a wild adventure.

Puppet play is tremendously enriching for kids of all ages. By acting out scenarios with make-believe characters, kids build social and emotional skills while practicing their language development, too. Parents, teachers, or therapists can get involved to steer puppet conversations toward specific goals, or leave the play entirely open-ended to let kids explore their own thoughts.

Creating these puppets is also great for kids at various stages. Older kids can follow the steps independently from start to finish, while younger kids can gut and glue the shapes that an adult has traced and prepared for them.

Because most of the shapes are on the larger side, it should be accessible for almost anyone who can use scissors. For those who can’t use scissors yet, you can pre-cut the pieces and have them do the gluing. Just let things to when it comes to results!

You can also cut out the pieces on white paper and have little crafters color them.

It’s easy to make a whole family of tigers for friends to play with together! Try varying the end product by drawing different facial expressions on each one to encourage kids to enact a range of emotions. Or check out our other paper bag puppet posts to make some more diverse friends for your little tiger.

Grab your free template at the end of this post and get ready for a roaring good time!

What you’ll need

• Colored paper
• Paper bag (or additional paper to create a bag)
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Glue
• Markers

How to Make your Paper Bag Tiger Puppet

1. Cut out the template patterns and trace them onto colored paper. We used a variety of shades of yellow and orange for the head, ears, tummy and tail, brown for the stripe on the head, pink for the inner ears, and white for the eyes, paws, and muzzle (that’s the lower part of the face.) We cut the nose out of black paper but you can easily use a scrap from another part and color it black. Cut out all the pieces.

Use a black marker to color pupils on the eye cutouts. Leave a little white spot or make a dot with white-out or pastel to give the eyes extra dimension and expression.

2. Glue the smaller ear cutouts onto the center of the outer ear cutouts. Glue the brown stripe down the center of the head, starting at the top.

3. Glue the ears to the top of the head, attaching them in back of the head. Glue the muzzle, or lower part of the face, onto the bottom of the head cutout.

4. Glue the nose to the center of the face, overlapping the muzzle and stripe. Glue the eyes to each side of the face.

5. Use a black marker to outline the stripe patterns on the head and to create a mouth and some freckles on the muzzle.

6. Color in the stripe outlines with black marker.

7. For the tiger’s body, trace the size of your paper bag onto a piece of colored paper and cut it out.

8. Glue the belly cutout  at the bottom of the body, then glue the paws on each side, overlapping the belly.

9. Use a black marker to outline and color in the stripe pattern on the body and tail.

10. Glue the tail to the side of the body, attaching it to the back.

11. Hold the paper bag, still folded flat, with the base of the bag on top. Glue the head to the base of the paper bag.

12. Glue the body of the tiger to the front of the paper bag, under the head.

Download the Paper Bag Tiger Puppet:

To download, fill out the form below. You’ll be signed up for our free newsletter – unsubscribe at any time in the footer of the emails. I respect your privacy and the law and won’t share your information with anyone.

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To celebrate A’s second birthday party, we played on her love for the song Old McDonald (thank you, Cocomelon) and made a farm animal themed birthday party. I love really easy to do activities that double as take home “gifts” and so I knew I needed to illustrate a set of farm animal stick puppets for the occasion!

These puppets were designed for toddlers and preschoolers to craft and play with. When it comes to toddler crafts, there are two elements that are requirements for me: a coloring/painting element (so that they can contribute a meaningful element to the creation) and a familiarity element – something they’ll recognize and get excited about. This craft has both.

The cutting is a bit much for toddlers, however preschoolers can cut it themselves, even if not perfectly.

I also illustrated supportive props to turn it into a complete Old McDonald puppet set that can be played with as part of a sing-along. That includes a barn and an Old McDonald puppet. Besides for that, you have standard farm animals including:

• Duck
• Chicken
• Goat
• Sheep
• Horse
• Pig
• Cow
• Chick

If you want more animals, or you want full-color finger puppets, check out my Etsy shop for more options!

How to use these farm animal stick puppets as a party activity

Your download includes two versions: a PDF to print out, cut by hand, and craft. It also comes with a zip folder with PNG files that you can use with your Cricut to “print then cut”. I recommend doing this if you’re using it as a party activity. It’s simply much easier, especially for toddlers.

I pre-cut my farm animals (I only used the animals at the party) using my Cricut. I placed double sided tape (about an inch) at the top of some craft sticks to keep things easy and neat, leaving the backing on. I then put out the animal faces, prepared craft sticks, and crayons on plates/in cups.

I prepared a sample and taped it to the front of the party cup that had the craft sticks so that parents can see what to do. I also jotted on the plate with the puppet faces “color and craft a puppet”.

These paper crafts can be put out generously, making them a fabulous choice for parent-led entertainment at a party that doesn’t have an actual timetable.

I simply put out different entertainment stations (which I’ll do a separate post on) for parents to bring their kids to, and so everything had to be as simple as this.

Farm animal stick puppets are also an activity that can appeal to a broader age range, so when you are throwing a two year old’s party but are having older kids there as well, it’s the perfect way to do it.

Download the Farm Animal Stick Puppets

These farm animal stick puppets are a premium download in my shop, available for just a few bucks. You can then print as many as you need for your classroom, public library, birthday party, or other personal non-profit use.

How to assemble your farm animal stick puppets

What you need

• The puppets, printed on cardstock
• Scissors (or “print then cut” with your Cricut)
• Craft sticks
• Crayons
• Glue or double sided tape – recommended if doing it at a party!

Assembly Instructions

1. Print and cut the farm animals. You can cut on the center line and top of the barn if you want the doors to open.

2. Color it in.

3. Place some double sided tape on craft sticks.

4. Peel off the backing on the tape and stick the colored puppets onto the popsicle sticks!

If you haven’t yet, Download the Farm Animal Stick Puppets

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Time for some more puppet play! Homemade puppets encompass everything we love about crafting with kids: Exercising fine motor skills and following directions, leaving room for creative personal touches, and then using the products of their own handiwork to engage in unlimited activity.

Puppet play in particular is a developmental goldmine, as children can enact both realistic or imaginative scenarios to practice social skills and role playing.

Here’s an all-new character to add to your handmade puppet collection: The bat! For some reason, bats have a spooky, scary reputation.

Maybe it’s because they come out just as it’s getting dark outside, which could understandably make you a little nervous. But in real life, bats don’t generally harm people, and there are so many cool things about them, too! 

For starters, they are the only mammal that can fly. How wild is that?! To find their way around, they use echolocation – releasing sounds and detecting their echoes in order to navigate in the dark.

We humans need sophisticated machinery to attempt that! And bats are super helpful in keeping pest populations under control, because their diets consist of bugs such as mosquitoes.

So, you are more than welcome to make your bat puppet scary if you want. But you can also use this project as an opportunity to get to know and befriend another one of our little animal helpers!

This project is well suited for crafters of any age, though you might need to help the youngest ones with some of  the tracing and cutting.

You can use any type of paper – construction paper, cardstock, or copy paper, for example. And if you don’t have colored paper or are missing some of the colors you’d like to use, you can simply print the template on white paper and have the child color it with their choice of markers or crayons.

What you need

• Colored paper
• Paper bag
• Scissors
• Glue
• Pencil
• Markers
• Template – download for free at the end of this post

How to Make a Paper Bag Bat Puppet

1. Print the template and cut out all the pieces. Trace them onto the colored papers of your choice, and cut them out. When done, you should have a head, body, wings, fangs, eyes, inner and outer ears, feet, and cheeks. 

2. Glue the inner ear parts to the larger/outer ear pieces.

Use a marker to draw details on the wing cutouts. We did this by outlining the shape of the wing, and then drawing lines from the top corner to each of the bumps on the bottom.

3. Glue the feet to the bottom of the body shape (the large rectangular cutout)

4. Glue the wings to each side of the body.

5. Use markers to draw pupils on the eye cutouts. Glue them onto the head.

6. Glue the ears to the top of the head on each side.

7. Use a marker to draw a mouth in the middle of the face under the eyes. Glue the fangs to the mouth. Glue the cheek blushes to the sides of the face. Trim off extra cheek paper that sticks out, if needed.

8. Get your bag ready to assemble the puppet. Put it in front of you so the bottom of the bag is at the top of your puppet, flattened so that you can see the base of the bag. The opening should be facing toward you and will be the bottom of the puppet.

9. Glue the head to the flat bottom side of the paper bag (which is now at the top of the puppet). The ears will stick up past the edge of the bag.

10. Glue the body to the flat side of the paper bag that is below the head.

11. If the open end of the paper bag is sticking out too far from the bottom of the puppet, you can trim it shorter.

That’s it! Your bat is ready to soar through the night on a fun adventure!

Download the Paper Bag Bat Puppet

To download, fill out the form below. You’ll be signed up for our free newsletter – unsubscribe at any time in the footer of the emails. I respect your privacy and the law and won’t share your information with anyone.

The post Paper Bag Bat Puppet Craft appeared first on Moms and Crafters.

Fire can be a scary thing to discuss and think about. But when you talk it over with friendly, helpful firefighters, it becomes something we can handle.

Use these fire-fighting puppets to teach children about fire safety, or just enjoy some action-packed dramatic play.

Young children love to act out fire-fighting scenarios, where they get to be the hero and take control in an intense situation – with lights, sirens, and spraying hoses! Fire-fighting scenarios and fire safety instruction also help strengthen kids’ concepts of cause and effect.

This craft is great for early learners because most of the shapes are simple to cut out. Even those whose scissor skills are only beginning to develop should need only a little bit of help cutting out the parts.

Your preschooler will feel so proud and accomplished to make their own firefighter puppet toy!

What you’ll need:

• Colored paper
• Paper bag
• Markers
• Glue
• Pencil
• Scissors

How to Make a Paper Bag Fire Fighter Puppet

1. Choose colored papers for the skin tone of the puppet and for the hair. Use red, yellow and brown or black papers for the uniform of the fire-fighter paper bag puppets. 

Trace the head, hand, and hair templates on the papers you chose. Trace the hat and sleeve templates on the red paper, the shoe templates on the brown or black paper, and the rest of the templates (mostly strips) on the yellow paper.

2. Glue the hair cutout to the top of the head cutout. 

Cut a slit along the marked line of the hat pattern. If a child is doing the craft, you may need to help them cut the slit. It’s ok if the slit accidentally goes too far, you can tape it back together after.

Attach the badge shape on the top part of the hat.

3. Insert the top of the head through the slit of the hat. Use glue to secure it in place.

Use markers to draw the firefighter’s eyes, nose and mouth.

4. Glue the shortest yellow strip cutouts to the ends of the sleeve cutouts.

5.  Trim off the extra part of the yellow strip that sticks out past the sleeve. Then, attach the hand cutouts to the end of the sleeves, behind the yellow strips..

6. Trace your paper bag onto a piece of red paper and cut it out.

7. Glue the red paper onto the paper bag; this will be the front of your puppet. 

The part that would have been the bottom of the bag will be the top of your puppet. Flatten this part toward you  and glue the firefighter’s head onto it. 

8. Attach one of the arms you made to each side of the paper bag puppet.

9. Arrange the largest yellow strip cutouts across the top of the puppet’s body and glue them in place.

10. Glue the shoe cutouts along the bottom edge of the puppet (the open side of the bag). Attach the 2 small strip cutouts above the shoe patterns to help definite legs. 

If you want, you can use a marker to make  a line, starting at the bottom between the shoes and going part way up the puppet’s body to divide the 2 legs of the puppet.

11. Allow the glue to dry and you’re ready to play!

Download the Fire Fighter Puppet Template

To download, fill out the form below. You’ll be signed up for our free newsletter – unsubscribe at any time in the footer of the emails. I respect your privacy and the law and won’t share your information with anyone.

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