Ghosty finger puppets

What you need:

• craft paddle pop sticks
• 2 x googly eyes per finger puppet
• coloured felts, make sure you have black and white!
• colourful craft gem circles or buttons
• fabric scraps for clothing
• thin, colourful pipe cleaners
• white craft glue
• scissors

Number of players:
1+

Activity:

Cut out simple ghost bodies from the white felt and glue them to the craft sticks.

Leave 2cm of stick poking out the bottom – this is where you’ll hold your finished finger puppets.

Use your imagination to create clothing and accessories such as skirts, vests, bow ties, and hair bows for your ghosty characters.

Use colourful felt shapes, short pieces of pipe cleaner and other craft scraps to design your characters’ outfits. (Find more tips below)

Glue your clothing and accessories to the white ghost bodies.

Then use craft gem circles or buttons to further decorate.

Now use your craft scraps and googly eyes to create your puppet faces.

Try using wool or small pieces of pipe cleaner for hair, mouths and moustaches.

Allow everything to lay flat to dry, then your ghosty finger puppets will be ready to play!

Notes:

• Use simple shapes to create clothing. Triangles make easy skirts, and you can create a dress by using a rectangle with a triangle cut at the top for the top-half. Small triangles can be put together at the points to create bow ties and vests. Create different felt shapes for hats, or use wool or pipe cleaners for hair.
• Before you throw a worn-out garment in the rag-bag, think about whether it would make good craft material. Cut a patch off the clothing, then trim that into small, simple shapes. Collect different kinds of fabric in a container, and you’ll have a constant supply of fun fabric bits for creating clothing for your craft projects.
• Encourage the kids to put on a puppet show for the family! Get them to hide behind the couch, or create a mini-puppet theatre using a box – decorate inside to create your scene, and cut doors and windows in the sides for your puppets to make their entrances and exits from the stage.