Shadow Puppets

Shadow Puppets

A Shadow Puppet is the sort of classroom project that can be done with children of all ages. By making simple edits you can make a shadow puppet with children at the pre-school age or more sophisticated puppets for middle school children. After you have created your shadow puppet with your child or your class , hang a sheet and put on a show. This is a great assignment to augment a language arts curriculum. Have your class write a poem or a story and then act it out on stage!

Materials

Paint Brushes 30 Pack

Feathers Assorted Colors

Acrylic Paint Jars 6 Pack Primary

Sequin Mix Round Assorted Colors

Wood Dowels Round 16 Pack 3/16 in

Craft Glue

Paper Fasteners

Poster Board Paper

Scissors

Pencil

Hole Punch

Instructions

Step 1. Gather your supplies.
	Step 2. Draw the parts of your shadow puppet. Any piece that you would like to move draw separately. For our shadow puppet we made an imaginary creature, a Gryphon. A gryphon has the body of a lion but the head and wings of an eagle. We decided that we wanted the head and the wing to move so we drew these pieces separately.
	Step 3. Cut out each piece of your shadow puppet.
	Step 4. Place the pieces of your shadow puppet as they will appear when you connect the moveable parts.
	Step 5. Using a hole punch, punch a hole through the head (or first moveable part) of your shadow puppet.
	Step 6. Take the piece that now has a hole and place it over the area where it will be attached. Trace the hole with a pencil and then punch a hole inside the  "traced" circle on the second body part, in this case, the neck.
	Step 7. Repeat Step 6 on any other part of your shadow puppet that will move.
	Step 8. Connect your moveable parts with paper fasteners.
	Step 9. Open the paper fasteners and add a dab of glue on the back side to secure.
	Step 10. Now it is time to Decorate your shadow puppet! For our Gryphon we cut a piece of Red Fuzzy Stick to about 1 1/2 inches in length and formed an eye. We then glued the eye in place.
	Step 11. We created a decoration for the tail and for the wing by cutting Red Fuzzy Sticks into 2-3 inch pieces and rolling the pieces into flat spirals.
	Step 12. We continued to decorate our shadow puppet by adding Sequins, Acrylic Paint and Feathers.
	Step 13. Once the decorations are complete glue a Wood Dowel to the back of the shadow puppet at the point where the shadow puppet will move. In our case, we put the dowels on the wing and the head.