The will be the easiest puppet theater you ever make! It is super simple and loads of fun for the kids to decorate and play with. Have kids create their puppet theater and finger puppets, then put on a show for family and friends! This would also make an awesome preschool and/or home school activity.
Purchase a tri-fold poster board. I found some that came in colors (red, yellow, blue, and green) but decided to go with the plain white board. Make sure the board is a matte and not a glossy surface so you can paint it. I applied 2 coats of paint to the white board. Allow the paint to dry. Using a pencil and ruler if you want exact measurements, trace where you will cut out the window on the board. Carefully using a xacto knife, cut the rectangle out of the board. We then used a pretty pink washi tape to add a border to the window.
Tip: Make sure to use a sharp xacto knife or the edges will come out choppy. Next, the girls decorated the puppet theater with some spring foam stickers.
We made four puppets to start our collection (I have a feeling there are more puppet request to come!). To make it easier for the girls, we used circle punches for a couple of the steps when making the puppets.
For the large circle or the body (you want this to be large enough to punch two holes for the kids fingers), cut a 3.5 – 4″ circle from yellow paper. We traced a container lid and cut it out for each of our larger circles. You’ll want to use a smaller circle for the head, about 2.5″ circle. Glue the head to the body. Add googly eyes. To make the beak, cut a diamond shape from orange construction paper and fold it in half. Glue the beak below the googly eyes. Ella used a 1.5″ scallop circle punch for the wings of her baby chick. Glue both wings to the puppet. To make the finger holes we used a 1″ circle punch and punched two holes in the bottom of the body.
Repeat the steps above for the body, however use white paper. For the head we used a scalloped 2.75″ circle punch and added a gray scalloped circle that was about 2.5″ for the face. Glue the gray circle onto the white scalloped circle. Then glue the face onto the body. Add the googly eyes and a self-adhesive heart jewel for the nose. To make the ears, punch two gray 1″ circles and pinch the bottoms in half. Glue to the back of the lambs head. Add the two 1″ holes for the fingers. Use a black marker to draw a mouth on the lamb.
You will need pink construction paper for the piggy puppet. Cut out the 3.5 – 4″ circle body. Punch out a smaller 2.75″ circle for the head. Glue the head to the body and add the googly eyes. Cut a small oval from the pink paper for the pig’s nose. We used a foam glue dot to give the nose a 3D effect. Draw two black dots on the nose. Twist a pink chenille stem around your finger to curl it. Glue one end onto the back of your piggy puppet. Punch two 1″ holes for the fingers in the bottom of the puppet.
Cut one body and one head from the white paper. Attach the head to the body with glue. Add the self-adhesive googly eyes. Glue on a glittery mini pom for the bunnies nose. Draw whiskers and the mouth with a black marker. Cut white ears in the shape of your child’s finger with white paper. Cut pink ears slightly smaller to glue on top of the white ears. Then glue ears to the back of the bunnies head. Punch two finger holes in the bottom of the body.
That’s it! We hope these four adorable finger puppets inspire you to make more.
Created by Shauna of Ella and Annie
