One of the lesser-known facts about me is that I have a secret career as a puppeteer. It’s lesser-known (and supposed to be secret) because I find the idea of doing a puppet show around anyone other than a group of kids incredibly embarrassing. I know I should get over this. I’m sure if I was a real puppeteer I would be proud of the fact that I can do such good pirate voices and or that I have a pig puppet I bought for $2 that speaks exclusively with an Australian accent.
One day the Expresso breakfast show phoned me to ask if I could help them with a promotion they were doing for Rice Krispies. They suggested that I come and do a puppet show with cardboard stick puppets made from the cut-out faces of Snap, Crackle and Pop, which would apparently be good exposure for my business. This sounded like the worst idea ever. Not only would my secret be out – on national TV! – but even the most gifted actor would struggle to make cardboard heads-on-sticks look good. Not exactly the kind of exposure I was looking for.
However, I had a counter offer. I would show kids how to make puppets out of the cereal box, and I’d bring some kids along with me to do the “show” (because no-one finds a six-year old with a pirate voice embarrassing). So I made the puppets and then I realised I could do a lot more with the box. The result is one of my favourite upcycling activities and was the subject of Covid-19 Zoom Kids’ Adventure #2. Here’s how you do it…
- Find a cereal box. Draw a rectangle on the side of the box with a border of about 5cm between the box edge and the rectangle edge. Cut out the rectangle. The kids told me that they weren’t able to start cutting in the middle of the rectangle and so I suggested they start cutting from the open edge and then tape it up afterwards. Cut away the flaps at one side of the box and/or cut a wide strip at the bottom of the stage (depending on where you want the stick puppets to enter from).
2. Decorate the box. For the purposes of these Zoom sessions, I was trying to use things that could be found around the house and so I cut pictures and letters out of an old magazine. I found some cute houses on one of the pages which I used for a backdrop.
3. My favourite part of this craft is the use of the cereal packet to make curtains for the stage. Cut a strip off the end of the cereal bag and then cut the strip just shorter than the width of the box. Tape the top, bottom and side of the curtain inside the box so that they cannot be seen. Tie the curtain with a piece of ribbon, string or thread.
4. Draw the characters you want in your puppet show on to a piece of card (you can use the cut-out piece of the cereal box if you want). Cut these out and tape them to sticks. You can make sticks by cutting strips of thick cardboard or use objects you find around the house.
5. Your puppets and puppet stage are ready!
Creativity tip: If you don’t have some of the materials used in this craft, ask the kids to come up with an alternative plan. There’s always a way to make it happen! Check out all the cool adaptations made by the Zoom kids this week…
Creativity Under Constraint 