A few weeks ago I introduced you to our latest spoon puppet craft, and now I'm at long last getting around to telling you how we made our sweet little spoon puppet theater. I did this project with a group of about 70 girls, so I can attest to the fact that it's a great project for a range of ages, and an alotment of at least 1 1/2 hours. Many of the younger girls, say ages four and five could make the puppets on their own, but did understandably need quite a bit of help with the theater. From the looks on their faces, all of the girls were really happy to go home with such a complete project!
You'll Need:
- wooden skewers, 5 per theater
- colored paper, preferably card stock weight
- pre-cut pieces of either foam core or corrugated cardboard, for the stage front
- yarn or string scraps
- black markers
- scissors
- tape and glue
- spoon puppets, see my spoon puppet tutorial
How To:
- Make the frame work for the curtains by binding one horizontal skewer to a vertical skewer on each end with small pieces of yarn. You will now have an arch made with three skewers.
- Using a letter or A4 sized piece of colored paper, fold the top 1 inch or so of the paper over, and then draw two gathered curtains on the paper with a black felt pen. Make details on the curtain, such as gather lines, with a felt pen. Cut out the curtains and then attach to the skewer arch by poking the skewer through the fold and then taping.
- Wrap your piece of foam core with paper and tape to secure. Decorate with black felt pens. Poke the skewers through the top edge, through the paper and into the foam core to secure.
- Make additional decorations such as the crown and diamonds with a contrasting color of paper and embellish with black felt pen. Attach with tape or glue.
- Once the stage is finished, carefully poke two skewers through the stage front portion as legs which will allow it to stand.
- Got it? Take a careful look at the photos of my daughter's version and I think that will be easier than reading my directions! And of course, you could also make a giant version of this with a cardboard box which could be lots of fun too!
Enjoy this great winter craft that really could keep your kids busy and creative for hours. And if that concept seems more like a dream than reality, then I'd just like to add a few words of encouragement and suggest that while getting your kids to enjoy crafts for hours on end may not happen over night, it can happen with just a little bit of effort and encouragement and patience on your part as well as of course un plugging from any electronic distractions (with the exception of music) that may possibly be inhibiting the creative play in your home. You can do it!
