Paper Cup Marionette

The playdough finger puppets were a big hit with the kids, they even asked if they could make more. I thought while our additional puppets were drying, maybe we'd try a secondary puppet craft, and make some marionettes. I found the instructions for this simple paper cup puppet at www.loiswalker.com/puppets.html.

You need:

• 3 paper or styrofoam cups


• 4 pieces of string (about two feet long each)


• 6 pieces of popsicle stick or twig


• 1 ruler or wood dowel


• markers for drawing on a face


• something sharp to make holes in the cup with.
  

Tie one end of each of the strings to a piece of popsicle stick. You should have two pieces of stick left over.

Poke one hole in the bottom of two of the cups, and two holes in the bottom of the third cup. The cups with one hole will be the feet. The cup with two holes will be the head.

Poke two additional holes near the top of the head cup, evenly lined up with the holes on the bottom. Thread two of the strings through the top holes, from inside to out, so that the pieces of popsicle stick end up inside the cup.

Thread the other two pieces of string through the feet cups, so that the sticks are also on the inside of the cups.

Then take the two free ends of the string from the feet and thread them from the outside to the inside on the bottom of the head cup. Tie the last pieces of stick to the ends of the strings inside the cup, and let them drop down into the cup. Try to keep the pieces of string even, so the legs will be the same length.

Draw a face on the cup. Then attach the remaining free ends of the arm strings to a ruler or wood dowel, and you're ready to play.

I was a little disappointed that you couldn't lift the feet individually, and thought about adding a cross stick attached to the leg strings, but that would take away from the "arm" look of the top strings. The children were delighted with the puppet though, and wanted to make theirs just the same. Once you focus on hopping, instead of walking, it is a very funny little puppet.