Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear :: Finger Leg Puppets

 

The other day my little one & I were singing the song Teddy Bear Picnic and making our fingers dance; I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be fun to have some of those dancing finger puppets to go with this song?"  After a little research, I discovered that this type of puppet is sometimes referred to as a "finger leg" puppet, and I set to work whipping up some of our own...

MATERIALS
Scrap cardboard (a recycled cereal or biscuit box is a good weight/thickness)
Colorful craft paper
An exacto or other sort of craft-knife
Scissors
Gluestick
A pencil
A pen or markers
Two fingers
A silly song
A giggly child

Start by drawing your designs on a piece of cardboard.  My puppets are 10 cm tall, and the holes for my fingers are about 18 mm wide.  I can fit my fingers in these openings but they are not so large that my children cannot operate the puppets.

Cut out your puppets with a scissors and then use an exacto or craft knife to carefully cut out the finger holes (mine are a bit ragged, but this a toy and just for fun, so no big deal!!)

Trace the outline of your cardboard figures onto colored paper and cut out with a scissors.  The tracings on the colored paper will be a bit larger than the cardboard one, so you might want to trim 1 or 2 mm around the edges of the colored paper cut-outs.

Use a glue stick to attach the colored paper to the cardboard figures then cut faces out of contrasting paper. Decorate with pen or markers and attach the faces to your puppets.

For templates and fun space alien designs you can have a look here, and on Etsy there is an amazing printable for free download!

Now it's time to play!