Flying Puppets

Paper, glue, wire, and a stick are all it takes to make puppets that move their wings up and down! My students loved making these magical moving animals in about an hour.  I found that a bamboo skewer and jewelry works best for an almost invisible results, but we also tried it with supplies that we had readily available such as straws and pipe cleaners. 

For a bird you need to cut out the shape of a bird body, a tale and wings from card stock. The til can slide into the back of the bird using a slit and the wings can either be added with a slit at an angle on the back of the bird, or folded and glued to the back of the bird. A small strip needs to be glued in a ring that fits snuggly around the straw (or dowel, or skewer). I found it works best if you glue two wires or piper cleaners to the strip before winding it up and gluing the end to the paper cylinder.

Then the other ends of the wire or pipe cleaners can be glued to the wings of the bird or butterfly with hot glue. This can also be done with a strip of cardstock that matches the wings and is glued on either end, so that wire can slide into it on the wing. That can be done with Elmer's so that each kid can make their own.

Most students chose to make butterflies. This only required 1/4 a piece of card stock, folded in half and then cut to make two butterfly wings (be sure to not cut on the fold side.) Some students added bodies to the center with wire antennae. At Jim Henson's funeral, there was a cathedral full of loved ones waving butterfly puppets in the air. He is the most famous puppeteer ever. We watched PBS's Jim Henson documentary that was part of the "In Their Own Words" series. This project was a perfect way to bridge our performing arts related projects and our paper toy projects for my Careers in Art Unit.