Shape Penguin Puppet

Materials

White paper lunch bags, one per child

Instructions

What to do
1. Ahead of time, cut out the shapes that the
children will use to assemble their puppet.
Older children can cut out some of the
shapes on their own. For each puppet, cut
a black oval for the penguin's belly and a
smaller white oval for the white on its
belly. Cut a black circle for each head, two
long, thin black triangles for the flippers,
two orange triangles for the beak, and two
orange triangles for the penguin's webbed
feet.
2. When you are ready to begin, have the
children place their bag on the table in
front of them; tell them to leave the bag
folded flat and turn it so the bottom flap,
or the penguin's head, is at the top.
3. Ask the children to glue the black oval
onto the bag, tucking part of it under the
bottom flap, then glue the white oval on
top of the black.
4. Have the children glue the circle onto the
flap of the bag and attach the penguin's
eyes.
5. To attach the beak, show the children how
to lift the flap and glue one triangle on
top of the belly; glue the other triangle to the penguin's head, directly over the first triangle.
6. When they finish the head, have the children glue the wings to the underside of the belly, positioning
them so that they protrude.
7. Tell the children to glue the wider orange triangles with their pointed corner facing down
along the bottom edge of the bag.
8. Invite the children to attach feathers or bits of felt to their penguins with glue, then set the
puppets aside to dry.
9. Afterward, invite the children to put their hand inside the bag and play with their penguin puppets.
More to do
Dramatic play: Invite the children to put on a puppet show with their paper bag penguins.
More art: Make other animal pictures or puppets with shapes.
Movement: Play some music and have the children pretend to be penguins, waddling on land or
swimming swiftly after their prey.
Sand and water table: Add small plastic arctic animals and a few ice cubes to the table.