Family String Puppets
In the show Let's Go Luna, Carmen and Andy get into an argument over art and music. Luna and Leo come up with a great idea to combine the art and music in a fabulous puppet show featuring Kathputli puppets and a performance that will help end the argument.
Luna and her friends made Kathputli puppets that looked just like Carmen and Andy! In this activity, you can make puppets that look like members of your family. Create a puppet for each person and then put on your own puppet show to retell a favorite family story, role-play solving a problem, or just have a puppet family dance party!
Materials
Directions
Cut a cereal box along one long edge and open it up so you can draw on the inside of the box.
Draw one set of arms and legs on the inside of the cereal box. Be sure to keep the lines simple. Then carefully use scissors to cut out the arms and legs.
Draw the shape of a body (shorts, shirt or a dress) on a large piece of the cardboard.
Print out the picture of your family member on 8.5'' x 11'' paper. You may need to play around with the size, but it should be bigger in proportion to the body. Cut the face out. Then use the glue stick to glue it onto cereal box cardboard. Cut the face out again and then reinforce it with another layer of cardboard.
Using a box cutter, cut out the shape of the body/clothes of your puppet. Lay the pieces out to see if you need to make any size adjustments. Children could do this with a pair of kid-friendly scissors, but it might be difficult for them to cut the cardboard accurately.
Color your puppet's outfit, shoes, etc. Then have an adult use hot glue to attach the head, legs and arms to the body.
Once all the pieces are glued into place, flip your puppet over so that the back is facing up. Form a loop with the string and attach the two end pieces by glue or tape to the back body of the puppet and to the head of the puppet. The puppet will fall/lean forward if you don't also attach the string to the back of the head.
Your puppet is ready for action! Set up a theater at home to show off your stringed family members.
We hope you had fun together! Snap a photo of you and your child doing the activity and share it with us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. We’d love to see how it turned out!
Original craft idea by Caroline Gravino. Caroline is a designer of creative family projects, a crafter, tinkering painter and mother of four children. For several years, Caroline wrote about project ideas for the whole family and encouraging creativity in kids in her former blog, SalsaPie. Learn more about Caroline. Photography by Nikki Brooks.
Author: 
Arts