How to make a fox puppet

Make your own Fantastic Mr Fox marionette puppet with a toilet roll and some other recycled bits and bobs.

What you need:

• 1 x toilet roll
• 1 x fox puppet printable template
• 2 x milk carton lids
• 1 x brown shoelace
• 1 x 20cm stick or rod (a wooden ruler will do)
• 1 x A4 piece of white card
• string
• glue
• scissors
• paint
• hole punch

Number of players:

Activity:

Paint the toilet roll with brown paint and set it aside to dry.

Print the fox puppet template onto white card and use paints, coloured marker pens, crayons or pencils to colour in Mr Fox's face and tail. Cut out the face and tail.

Cut your shoelace into four equal pieces (about 15cm each) to use as the arms and legs.

Use a heated metal skewer (Mum to do this) to pierce a hole through the centre of each of the plastic bottle lids. These lids will be the feet.

Thread a piece of the shoelace through each hole in each lid and tie a knot to keep it in place.

Use the hole punch to make four holes in the toilet roll: two for the arms and two for the legs.

Thread the other end of each lidded string through the holes you have created in the bottom of the toilet roll to create the legs. Tie a knot on the inside of the toilet roll to stop it slipping back through.

Now thread the arms (the other two pieces of shoelace) through the arm holes in the upper body. Tie a knot on the inside of the toilet roll to stop the arms slipping back through. Tie a knot in the other end of each 'arm' to create paws.

Use glue to stick on the head and the tail.

Now get your rod.  Attach three pieces of string to it, with a good length dangling down for your puppet.

You can tie the string onto the rod or use a hand drill to make small holes to thread the strings through.

Now attach the other end of the centre string to the front of the fox's body (just behind the head/face) and the other two pieces will control either the arms or the feet, depending on how you want to move your puppet.

Use the strings to move your puppet around.

• Thanks to our sister company Kidspot Australia for creating the instructional video.