Skip to Main Content
Regal & Royal

Paper Bag Puppets

Puppetry is an ancient art form that is still widely practiced throughout the world. Students will create hand puppets out of paper bags and then write and perform an original puppet show.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Lunch Bags
  • Paper
  • Tape

Steps

  • Step 1

    People have been using puppets to tell stories for centuries. Some types of puppets include hand or glove puppets (worn on the hand), marionettes (controlled by rods and strings), shadow puppets (silhouettes projected onto a screen), stick puppets (with no moving parts), and others. Have students look at images of some of these puppets. Suggestions include the Bunraku puppets of Japan, "The Lonely Goatherd" clip of a marionette performance in "The Sound of Music," or any of the Muppets from Sesame Street.

  • Step 2

    Have students create a puppet on a paper lunch bag. It could be a person, an animal, or a mythological or fantastical figure. The opening of the bag will be the bottom where their hand will eventually go, and the fold in the bottom of the bag will become the mouth. They can add embellishments to the puppet by cutting features such as arms and other adornments out of paper.

  • Step 3

    When the individual puppets are complete, display them in a communal area. Have students form small teams, and have each team choose two or three puppets from the collection. Then ask them to write a scene or short play using the puppet characters they selected.

  • Step 4

    Have each team perform their scene or short play. Later they can arrange to visit other classes and perform their scenes for them.

Standards

ARTS: Combine ideas to generate an innovative idea for artmaking/composing and presentation/performance.  

LA: Develop real and imagined narratives. 

Adaptations

Puppet shows can engage and educate audiences of all ages. Have students discuss the reasons puppet shows can be so effective at doing this. For example, when we suspend our disbelief, can we see a world where anything is possible?

Ask students to describe a new Muppet they'd like to see on Sesame Street. What features would it have? Would it bring attention to a local or global issue? Would it resemble someone they know?