Stick Puppet Crafts

• Upload black and white photos of zoo animals on your computer. Resize the photos so each one is no more than 5 inches tall and 3 inches wide, then press “Print.” Pass out the animals to the children. Have them cut out the animals, then color them with crayons or markers. Glue the animals to the tips of craft sticks and use them as puppets.
  
  

Sock Puppets

• Create zebra puppets using old, white tube socks. Pass out the long socks to students and instruct them to draw horizontal black lines across the socks with black markers. They will need to press hard and may need to rub the marker back and forth to create thick, black lines. When complete, have children insert their hands into the tube socks and bend their wrist. The four fingers will become the zebra's head and the thumb will be the mouth; have them open and close their hand to demonstrate the mouth of the zebra. Complete the puppet by gluing googly eyes and a black pom nose to the tip of the sock.
  
  

Small Paper Bag Animals

• Hand out a small, orange paper bag to each child. Purchase the bags at craft stores or have children paint brown paper bags orange. Help children cut out stripes of various sizes and two small circles from black construction paper. In addition, children will need to cut out a pink, medium-sized circle, two small, pink crescents and two orange circles from construction paper. Have children glue the orange circles to the upper left and right corners of the bag bottom for ears and the pink crescents inside each ear. Glue the black circles side by side in the pink circle, then attach it to the bottom of the bag for the nose. Glue googly eyes on the bottom and the black strips randomly on the sides. Draw a curved mouth extending from the nose. Insert the child’s hand into the bag so he can manipulate the tiger puppet.
  
  

Paper Plate Puppets

• Create a puppet and a mask with paper plates. Hand out a large paper plate to each student and have them paint it brown like a monkey. While the paint is drying, give students tan and dark brown construction paper to create the nose, ears and mouth of the monkey. Help the students glue the ears near the top of the plate and the nose and mouth in the center. Cut two eyes out of the plate with a craft knife so the child can see when he holds the mask up to his face. Glue a large craft stick to the bottom of the plate. Use the plate as a puppet or face mask.