There are many simple ways that you can incorporate puppets into your classroom lessons or your library storytime.
When you’re presenting with a puppet, go ahead and just say it’s a puppet. If you don’t very young children, in particular, in the audience will probably interrupt you repeatedly to ask if the character is real, since they’re developmentally working on what is real and what is pretend in their day to day world.
Older kids will also try to impress you with how smart they are by yelling out, “It’s a puppet,” as if you didn’t know it wasn’t a real rabbit or whatever.
If you just introduce the puppet as a puppet, it won’t make it any less real or less magical for your audience.
At the same time, embrace and really believe in your puppets. While you’re manipulating it, you treat it lovingly and realistically, it will be much more enjoyable for the audience as well as for you.
Watch the puppet while you’re animating it, whether you’re hidden from or visible to the audience. If you’re visible and the audience can see you, and they see you watching the puppet, they will then watch the puppet. The audience is going to look where you are looking.
You might glance out at the audience from time to time to kind of gauge their response and include them in the conversation, but avoid competing directly with your puppet, unless you’ve orchestrated some kind of comical puppet versus puppeteer competition.
I’m watching the puppet while animating. It is also going to enable you to monitor the puppet’s movements and believability.
One of the most common types of hand puppet is structured so that you move its entire head as a unit and you can also move its two arms or paws.
Simple hand Puppets Can Be Quite Engaging
Its mouth does not open and close. Your hand goes up into the puppet with your three middle fingers in it. One finger in each of the arms and one in the head.
What you’ll be able to do is make the puppet tilt its head. You can make it rub its eyes, you can make it scratch its neck.
Many of these different motions can be made internally. You can manipulate internally for the puppet.
Some puppets might have a tail or something that you want to manipulate and that would have to be done externally.
One of the most important points to remember with all hand puppets is that effective eye contact between the puppet and the audience is absolutely essential.
You know, think about how disturbing it is when you’re talking with a real person and they’re not looking at you while they’re talking with you. The same situation is true with the puppet.
You need to make certain that your puppet is making intentional eye contact with people in the audience. You know, looking from person to person.
If your audience is sitting down on the floor and you’re up on a chair with the puppet or standing with the puppet, you might need to angle the puppet face downward to look at the audience.
Since you’re going to be watching the puppet a lot while you’re animating it, you should be able to monitor the eye contact that they’re making with the audience.
The other most common type of hand puppet is a puppet with an articulated or movable mouth, similar to a Muppet.
arm and rod puppet
Again, it takes practice to become skilled and really comfortable manipulating the puppet. But practice really pays off enormously, both in terms of enjoyability and believability.
A common mistake that people make when manipulating puppet mouths is for the puppeteer to just open and close the mouth so that the puppet is kind of eating it’s words rather than speaking them.
Think about what happens when you speak. You essentially open your mouth to let a word or syllable out and then you close your mouth after the word gets out.
The puppet should likewise open its mouth to release the word or syllable and close it. Open it for the next one and so on. That looks more natural.
You’re going to try and move the puppets lower jaw more than the top jaw. The lower jaw is about 70%, and the upper jaw is about 30% or so.
It’s probably going to feel unnatural at first when you start doing that. But again, it will help your puppet maintain eye contact with the audience to move it in that way.
If you’re moving the top jaw too much, the puppet’s head is essentially going to be raring back up and again and again like that. It’s important to move the lower one more than the top to practice.
One trick to help with this is to place your middle finger on top of your index finger inside the puppet. You will find you now have less movement in the top of the mouth and more with the jaw. Perfect!
Try counting to five with your puppet. As the puppet says each number your wrist is going to move gently forward, and your hand opens on the number and then your wrist returns to its original place and your puppet’s mouth is going to close.
Finally, a puppets ability to speak provides you with a really good opportunity to give him or her a character voice. It can help define that puppet’s personality. It can help maintain the audience’s interest if you do give the puppet a particular voice, however, you really need to be able to maintain it.
It’s so confusing for an audience to watch and listen to a puppet that has two completely different voices.
Often moving move puppets will have rods attached to the puppet’s arms to allow the puppeteer to move the arms. This will take practice but will result in a much more lifelike puppet.
Puppets often seem to take on a life of their own. A good puppeteer just tries to help the puppet come to life for the audience on, remember that the audience will really love it if you embrace your characters and present them with abandon because it’s not about you, the puppeteer, it is about your audience.
How can I make puppets for my classroom inexpensively?
The best puppets for classroom productions are generally ones that children can put their little hands into or could imagine themselves playing with. As school classes are small and intimate playrooms, it is likely the children will want to touch puppets after a production—or even become puppeteers themselves.
My suggestion is making puppets that small hands can work almost as well as your hands can work. Granted, this does not mean that if you have a puppet master in your midst—one who can work everything from marionettes to large foam puppets—that you should negate such a tremendous talent.
Simple felt puppets
This article is mainly for the novice puppeteers and those working with limited budgets who have decided to give making puppets a whirl.
For this, we recommend the most cost-conscious product you can find in a craft store: felt. Felt is easy to cut, easy to sew, easy to use with a hot glue gun. It is easy to make little arms and distinctive faces using felt.
By following the steps below, you can fashion any puppet that will fit over the average adult hand.
Creating felt puppets
Materials needed:
Sections of felt meeting the following criteria:
Large enough for you to spread your hand across plus two inches
In various colors you need to make the characters you want
Black and white to create eyes
Scissors
Plain white printer paper
Buttons
Yarn or other material for hair
Sample Of What Your Pattern Should Look Like
Making your pattern:
Take four pieces of printer paper and scotch tape them together, two on top, two underneath.
Lay the big piece on a table horizontally.
Spread your hand across a sheet of white printer paper laid horizontally on the table in front of you.
Add a half-inch on either side, and this should be the width of your puppet, including its arms. You are adding the half-inch because you want the puppets little arms to be able to meet in front so it can put its hands together. This takes an approximate inch more of fabric. 5. Measure from the top of your middle finger with your hand still spread down to two inches below your wrist, and this should be the height of your puppet.
Draw out the shape of the puppet you want. Remember that some animals have ears, and you want to draw them on. You may be able to find a pattern on the Internet that you can download and adapt in size to fit your dimensions. If not use rulers to help draw straight lines and round objects to help draw circles.
Cut out the pattern when finished.
Lion hand puppet
Making your Puppet
Pin two pieces of felt together that are big enough to meet your dimensions for making the body. Make sure the colors are accurate for the puppet you want to make. For example, sheep are white, fish are orange, etc. (I will go into detail in the next section about the puppets for Puppet Power!)
Pin the pattern to the front of the felt and trace around.
Cut out the felt along the edge of the pattern.
With either a needle and thread or a hot glue gun, attach the back of the puppet to the front.
Put your hand in and make sure the arms are wide enough to meet in front of you like little hands. 6. Repeat to make as many puppets as you want.
Decorating your puppets
Here is where you can become very creative. Feel free to let your imagination—and whatever interesting things exist in your sewing basket or junk drawer—have full reign.
If you have limited crafting talents, do not worry; what will make your puppet come alive for the children has more to do with your voice, your acting, your practicing!
Clothing: A magic marker can be used to make things like the lines of clothing. If you’re more ambitious, you can cut more felt to shape the clothes that you want. Or you can cut up old jeans and t-shirts to make clothing look more authentic.
You can also make spots on animals; for example, cows have black spots, frogs have yellow spots, etc. Glue them on with a glue gun.
Eyes: Buttons make great eyes, as do small white circles of felt combined with smaller circles of black felt. You glue the smaller black circle in the center of the white circle, then glue the eye on the puppet.
Also, you can buy ready-made eyes for rag dolls and puppets very reasonably at your nearest craft store. Google eyes also work great.
Mouths: The best mouths on puppets feature an expression of surprise. An open mouth, in other words. This is because puppets bear all sorts of emotions.
A crying puppet wearing a smile will not be believable. A puppet that always wears a frown will not go over well while laughing. In dog and cat puppets, little tongues can hang down.
For others, one trick is to place a small red half circle on a slightly larger black half-circle. The flat part should be on top. Glue them together and then glue them on the puppet. It will look like an open mouth with a tongue, slightly happy, which is appropriate for children.
Pipe cleaners can be used for mouths and eyebrows. Always have a supply of pipe cleaners on hand.
Yarn Hair: People who have sewing machines often rely on yarn for hair. Yarn can easily be manipulated for a wig by laying inch-long pieces side by side over a strip of felt. A two-inch strip of felt will fit around thirty pieces of yarn side by side. Run a hot glue gun over the top; let it saturate and dry.
Glue the hair on the puppet by the strip and cut the yarn to the shape you want. Or take around thirty pieces six inches long and braid it. Put the middle of the braid to the top of the puppet’s head, and either glue or sew it in place. Viola, the puppet has two braids.
Felt Hair: Felt can be cut into the shape of the haircut you want and you can add dimension but adding lines with markers on light hair and with white or gold pens on dark hair.
Feathers For Hair Feathers also make great hair and add a little movement to the puppet. Only a few maribou or similar feathers will add greatly to your puppet. Every movement makes the hair move slightly, creating life.
Other things: Add spectacles by using a pipe cleaner. Add scales to reptiles using a marker pen and some glitter. Put Velcro on the palms of puppet’s hands if you think they will need to hold a prop of some sort. Put the other Velcro piece on the prop, and the prop will stay.
Important note about faces: Whatever you use to make faces, be sure that the pieces are secure. A puppet can lose a button in a show, and a child may only shrug. If he loses an eye or his mouth, children may become alarmed and wonder if the puppet is hurt.
There are a lot of good reasons to start a puppet ministry. I have discovered it’s a wonderful way to share God’s word and the love of Jesus in a very nonthreatening way.
Puppet ministry is a team dedicated to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with your church community and the world using stories, songs, and humor through the art of puppetry.
Starting in a puppet ministry requires a great deal of thoughtful prayer and a willingness to commit your time and energy to a worthy cause.
A Great Puppet Ministry adds vitality to your children’s services and the adults love them, too.
A good way to start is to sit down, write it out, write out a mission statement. Your mission statement should define why your ministry exists. A good mission statement answers these questions. Who are we? Who do we serve, what do we do and why do we do it? And does this ministry and this mission statement point to God?
Next, you can set your goals and prioritize them. Be realistic about the number of goals that you can work on at one time. Do that for each of your goals.
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A great puppet ministry is designed to break down barriers in order to share the gospel and creative ways that appeal to children of all ages.
Of course, someone has to be in charge. So let’s call them the director. What qualities are needed for this position? They must be dedicated to the mission and should pray daily for God’s help and guidance. They need to have a positive attitude. Be willing to research and learn the skills needed to work in this ministry.
In starting a puppet ministry, you have to be very patient, especially when you are teaching the skills or you are learning them yourselves. So a good director will build positive relationships with the entire team and have a mission vision. Now, what are a mission and vision? Well, it can be whatever and however, you would like your ministry to share the love of Jesus with others.
Recruiting Team Members
Envision who to invite and pray for before you approach them. Make your invitation personal. No emails or texting aloud, inspire others, be enthusiastic, answer any questions and tell them why they would be a blessing to the ministry and why the ministry is a blessing and important to many.
When training a team member. Tell the person what is expected. Show them how to accomplish the task and allow them to do the task. Invest your time and build a relationship with your team members. Schedule and hold regular meetings and encourage whenever you can.
Training Puppet Team Members
Puppet ministry can be super effective. But it’s not enough to just throw a puppet on your arm and go. Like any art, it’s important to study, practice and strive for excellence. Done poorly, it can just be distracting and counter-productive.
Take the time to train new puppeteers how to sync their puppet’s mouth movements to a song or to words they are saying from a script.
A couple of years ago, I did a gospel magic presentation for a church event. Two young ladies from the hosting church did a puppet skit. They were articulate, easy to hear and did a great job lip-syncing with the puppets. BUT when their puppet was not speaking, it was motionless. They had “dead puppets.”
Teach your puppeteers how the puppet show move and where it should look when it is not speaking. Dead puppets kill a show.
Equipment Required
What equipment do you need to start a puppet ministry?
several puppets
a stage
audio equipment
puppet scripts
music
You will need some money and a financial plan.
You can research where to find your puppets and your other items and just search around. You can look on the Internet and you can just have to investigate all of this. What can you afford?
Think of ideas to raise money. How about your church budget? You could accept gifts and donations or you could have an adopt a puppet plan. The adopt a puppet plan allows people in your congregation to select a puppet and name them.
Unique and fun puppets can be purchased from Possum Woods Puppets HERE, as well as other sites online. Puppetbuildingworld.com has instructions for building your own puppets.
Puppet Scripts can be written by you or you can purchase them online. Our RESOURCE PAGE has a couple of great books with scripts I have written and used for our ministry.
Often you can use the church’s sound system, but if you have a traveling ministry or have your puppet ministry in a room without a sound system, you will need to think about amplification. Also, each speaking puppeteer will need his own microphone. If you pre-record your scripts, you can avoid the expense and technical requirements of multiple microphones.
The Amazing Amp comes with two microphones so two puppeteers can use the system. It is inexpensive and will fill a gymnasium with quality sound. It is the system my wife and I have used for the last 4 years and we love it. It also works with Bluetooth so you can run your prerecorded scripts and music straight from your phone or tablet without wires. You can see the Amazing amp on Amazon by clicking HERE.
The next thing you need is a stage.
You need to figure out what size stage will work best for you. How many puppeteers will be behind the curtain? Will you have one curtain or a second one higher in the back?
If you have the stage you need curtains. Commercial curtains can be very expensive. You can buy large, heavy tablecloths very inexpensively and make really nice curtains.
Want to build your own stage and save money? There is a great article at Puppet Building World.
You can also purchase a portable stage if you will have a traveling ministry. These generally cost $300 to $400 dollars. For our ministry, Possum Woods Puppets uses a PVC pipe stage. It breaks down and sets up quickly. It was donated to us 14 years ago and is still going strong.
PVC Pipe Puppet Stage
If you are looking for an inexpensive, simple puppet stage, I like this ONE
Are your wheels turning yet? I hope they are. Maybe a puppet ministry for your church is starting to take some shape.
Your next step is to name your group.
You want to try to come up with a name that will promote your message. Once you select your name, you can create your own tee shirts or shirts and jackets with your name and your church logo on there. If you use artwork, you can use the clip clip art that’s commercially available, to the public online. Do not just lift artwork off the internet. You will probably be violating copyright.
Puppetry Is Theater
You have to always remember that puppetry is good theater. Which puppets will work best for what you’re doing? Does the music fit in with your theme and does it fit with your audience? What’s your message?
We usually start our program with a peppy little, a song or light and funny material, or even a, a knock, knock joke, some kind of a joke. Then we build-up to the point that you want to make. We usually close with a Bible verse, and a song that will bless the audience. That is especially appreciated at the retirement homes and the nursing homes. Nursing homes love puppet teams because it is so helpful to the people who are in there. It brings them great joy in their heart.
When using music, either make sure it is public domain (non-copyrighted) or you will need to pay BMI/ASCAP. Your pastor can help you handle the legal aspects of music in your church. There are several sites online that sell royalty-free music, especially for puppets.
If you want to start a puppet ministry, we are willing to help any church that would like to start in any way that we can. The big thing is pray about it, pray for God’s guidance and pray for his blessings. Remember, God has given each of us our talents. Why? To use for building his kingdom. And it is such a blessing to be able to share his word and his joy and his promises with all those around us.
Puppet ministry is surprisingly effective and enjoyed in our high tech world. There is always something special about live performance. There is a relationship that happens between the performer and the audience, that no video can have. Puppeteers can ad lib and customize the show to audience response, really bringing a live audience into the show.
Puppets play a huge part in our children’s ministry programs. Children love the puppets and adults enjoy them, too. For many children that join us for Vacation Bible School, the puppet skits and songs are their favorite part.
Puppets used to be the mainstay of children’s television programming, but with the advent of cheap computer animation, puppets have disappeared from most kid’s shows. Having puppets in the church is actually new and refreshing to the younger generation.
Kids are used to computers and video games – won’t they find puppets boring?
Over the past 18 years I have been using puppets, I have discovered just the opposite. Kids are fascinated by these talking stuffed creatures. Mr. Rogers would captivate his audience with the simplest of puppets, while Sesame Street brought a new style puppet to children. Today, still, children just love puppets.
Puppets become real to children and adults. As a figure develops his character he or she becomes a unique individual with unique personality traits and quirks.
You always knew the Cookie Monster was going to gobble things up, whether it be cookies or the shape of the day. Grover was always going to be a bit absurd and Ernie was going to drive Bert crazy.
Over a five-night Vacation Bible School program, children get to know my puppet, Elmer, as a silly boy always getting things confused or aggravating his female cohort, Becky Becky is usually the serious one and Elmer is the instigator.
The children always yell when Elmer comes on the scene. Although I do Elmer’s voice in our skits, Sometimes my wife does Elmer as a silent puppet. He will pop up behind my back and the kids yell. When I turn around, he disappears. After a few times, I will catch him. Then I ask questions of him, Like, “Did you memorize your Bible verses?”
Elmer answers with head nods and shakes, by looking away, etc. My wife does an excellent job making him come alive without words.
Puppets Grab And Hold The Audience’s Attention
According to Christian Puppeteer Richard Gibson, “People will listen to puppets sometimes when they will not actual people. We have as many adults as kids that have said they want us back to share Christ again. I know our team and others that have had people come to alter at the end. We had one show that we had to keep stopping the show 3 times due to people coming to the altar.
Kids listen to puppets
It plants seeds for God. Which is what most ministries really do. Most of us will not know what God does with things He has used us for in the end. But, I can tell you He is involved. e Bible says if 2 or more gathered, He is there. So if a team is sharing Christ, we have an Audience of ONE and everyone else will get to worship with us. SO YES. I think puppets can reach people. I have seen it.
Think of it this way, Billy Graham and other preachers reach a lot of people just standing behind a pulpit sharing God’s Word. We just do it with Puppets. And less Air Time. We do have black lights and lighting for a couple of songs in our shows. They enhance the attention. Which goes back to, getting someone to hear us share Christ, Which is what it is all about.“
If your puppets are engaging and animated, your audience will key in on what they are saying. This allows your message to really be heard.
Kids of all ages love puppets
Puppeteer Laura Wray says, “Our ministry team is requested by adults and senior citizens the most. Especially hospitals. They can touch people of all ages. Puppets bring another bridge that some can relate to and bring them to the Lord. We add tech into our performances as well with videos to help enhance and keep attention by continuing to change things up.”
Matthew Chandler adds, “Kids of all ages like puppets. And doing shows live gives you a chance to improv a bit with the audience – something a video can’t do. Plus, I’ve found when I walk around with puppets, not only kids but adults like to put their fingers in my animal puppet’s mouths! “
Puppets Are Fun and Capture Your Audience’s Attention
Yes, people LOVE puppets. They are fun and they are personal. With puppets, the audience can be brought into the show. They feel they are right in the moment. With video, the audience members become mere spectators.
A stage full of puppets creates excitement.
A Stage Full Of Puppets Creates Excitement
Using multiple puppets also creates excitement. The puppets play off each other and create humorous situations. A puppet can pop up and bring surprise or tension or comic relief to a show.
Using multiple puppets can be a great attention grabber. Additionally, you can have a live person interact with the puppets. That is hard to do with video. As I mentioned above, the kids love when I interact with Elmer.
Every Ministry Can Benefit From Adding Puppets
I believe every ministry can benefit from adding puppets. Not just Vacation Bible School or Sunday School, but hospital ministry, nursing home ministry and even ministry to adults.
Puppets are just more characters you can add to your ministry without adding more personnel. I’m not just “Brother Dennis,” I am Elmer, Andy, Grandpa Possum and several other characters. My wife is Becky, Maria, Silent Elmer and multiple animals. Even my 9 year old twins add puppets in the background when we do songs with the puppets.
If you want to bring my family to your church or event, check out our ministry at www.winthechildren.com
Building a ventriloquist puppet is fun and not too difficult. Soft puppets are becoming very popular with ventriloquists. You can make a professional quality puppet with foam, fleece and common art supplies. Here I will discuss the steps and materials that will allow even a beginner to build a wonderful puppet.
I will focus on a human puppet, although everything here will also be applicable to making an animal or other puppet.
Table of Contents
1. You Need A Pattern
You will need a pattern to build a puppet. You can make your own pattern, buy a pattern or use a free pattern from online. If you buy a pattern, you can still modify it to make it your own.
The problem with free patterns is that few of the patterns I have found online will give you the taller head best suited for building a human puppet. Most of the free patterns are for round head puppets.
You can certainly follow the steps here and build a ventriloquist puppet from a round head pattern. Your character will, of course, have a round head.
I made the little girl puppet to the left from a free round head puppet. No, she is not a full body puppet, although I could have easily added the legs and shoes.
I recently built this puppet. You will notice this fellow has a taller head, and a lot more character.
This pattern is one I created. He has the look of a lot of the puppets being used by professional ventriloquists.
As you work with puppets and various patterns, you will start to get a knack for how the head patterns are made and also the modifications you want in yours.
You could take a round head pattern and “stretch it” to add height.
If you are just starting out, I would recommend buying a pattern, but more experienced builders may want to create a pattern that fits their idea for a finished figure better.
Jack Kemp has an excellent pattern on his web page for making a human puppet.
Jack Kemp’s “oblong head pattern” has what I consider the perfect shape for a human ventriloquist soft figure.
You could also take a stuffed toy and rip all the seams to get a pattern for your puppet. If the toy is small, you would need to trace the pieces that make the head on paper and then enlarge them to the desired size.
You will want to sketch out your idea for the finished puppet before you start building. If you are buying a pattern, or using a free pattern, freehand the shape of the pattern for the head on your sketch pad. Then elaborate from there to get an idea of what you want the finished puppet to look like.
If you are making your own pattern, draw out your character first and create the pattern to make your puppet match your sketch.
Some puppet makers will sculpt their idea out of clay. The clay is then covered with small pieces of masking tape. Once covered, the tape is removed in one piece. Darts are then made in the tape so the tape will lie flat on a piece of card stock to make the pattern.
Only make the pattern for half of your sculpted head, then make mirror copies of the pattern to make your head.
2. Necessary Materials
The basic materials for your soft ventriloquist figure are foam and fleece. You can find the foam and fleece is use on my Tools & Materials page.
The materials you will want to have on hand are:
Antron Fleece
1/2″ foam
Contact cement to join the foam pieces together.
Felt or craft foam for tongue, eyelids, and other miscellany
Spray adhesive
18 gauge wire for fingers
Plastic spoons, ping-pong balls or other materials for eyes.
Scissors and razor blades for cutting fleece and foam
Fur, feathers or other material for hair.
Various craft supplies
You can purchase inexpensive fleece at JoAnn Fabrics and other fabric stores. Most professional puppet builders, though, use Antron or Muppet fleece. Antron fleece has a nice pile that hides seams very well. I have also covered foam puppets with latex, not using fleece at all.
3. It Starts With The Foam Head
This is a pattern I bought.
Trace your head pattern on to your foam. You can use a sharpie marker, or a disappearing ink marker used for sewing.
Cut the pattern out with a razor blade or old scissors. Do not use your good sewing scissors on foam. Foam dulls scissors and razor blades very quickly. You will want o keep a good supply of razor blades on hand.
Use a razor blade to cut foam.
Once you have cut out your pattern, use contact cement to join the pieces together. Be sure to apply the glue to both pieces to be joined and let it dry to tacky before assembling.
Joelle has cut out her head pattern and has her gloves on ready to glue it together.
4. Build A Sturdy Mouth For Your Puppet
Your puppet’s mouth is the part of the puppet that will get the most work and the most stress. It is important to build a strong sturdy mouth if you want your puppet to last.
Mouth plates can be made out of a variety of materials. Plastic, cardboard, rubber gasket and wood are all used by different builders. I totally avoid cardboard. It is hot inside a puppet and sweat can break down cardboard quickly.
My favorite to use if foam core board. It is foam, covered on both sides with paper. It is popular for posters and science fair displays. Foam core is durable, yet easy to cut and work with.
Corrugated plastic, like that used in yard signs, is also a popular material with builders. Adam Kreutinger cuts his mouthpieces out of plastic storage bins. When using plastic, you may need to rough up the surface with sandpaper to get good adhesion with the glue.
Thumb and finger tubes made of foamElectrician’s tape to make a mouthplate. Quick, easy, but not for a professional puppet.
Steps to building your puppet’s mouth:
Draw your pattern on your moth plate material.
Cut out the mouth plate pieces.
Connect the two pieces with a strong material to make a hinge. I often use denim, but T-Shirt cloth or other cloths work fine. Some builders make their mouth plates from thin wood and attach them with a leather strip and rivets.
Cover the part of the plates that will not be seen with cloth. Again T-Shirt cloth works great. Be sure the mouth is closed when covering the hinge, otherwise your mouth will not close properly.
Cover what will be the inside of the mouth, visible to the audience, with felt, craft foam or other cloth. Lay the mouth flat when gluing this on.
When covering the mouth plate and hinge inside and out, I will coat the surface with spray adhesive then lay a piece of fabric larger than the mouth over it. Once dry, I trim it down for a perfect fit.
Build thumb and finger tubes to control the mouth. I build finger tubes out of foam. The foam has a little stretch to it and will help the puppet fit a variety of hand sizes. You can also glue or rivet an elastic strip on the top and bottom of the mouth for the thumb and fingers.
When I use foam finger tubes, which is most of the time, I then like to cover the tubes with another layer of fabric for strength.
Attach the mouth plate to the top and bottom pieces of your puppet to put the head together. If you are using a pattern that does not have separate head and jaw pieces, glue the mouth plate in the center of the mouth, then into the corners. You can then finish gluing the mouth in place.
5. Cover Your Head With Fleece
For a simple round head puppet, you can make a pattern for the head covering from the puppet pattern. If you have added cheeks, eye ridges, and other features, you will need to drape the fleece onto the foam.
Start your fleece at the corners of the mouth and bring it up over the head. You can use spray adhesive or hot glue to push the fleece firmly into crevices and around features.
You will want the stretch of the fabric to go from ear to ear, not up and down. Stretch the fleece enough to remove unwanted wrinkles and attach the fleece to the head. At some places, you will need to lift the fleece up to get a smooth finish. This will give you little peaks you will trim off, leaving darts in your fleece.
Sew the darts closed. Do the same on the jaw of the puppet, working down. Then sew the top and bottom pieces together on the head.
Try to place darts on the back of the puppet and in places where hair and other features will cover them.
Draping the fleece
Features like ears and noses are added after the head is covered.
Foam head covered with fleece
6. Build Your Body Before You Add The Neck
Since the neck attaches the head and body together, you want to have the body built first to make sure you have the proper length neck. Too long of a neck and you get a giraffe looking puppet. Too short and you will lack movement in the head and the chin will be right on the chest top, looking very unnatural.
Your body can be as simple as a foam tube. Make a foam tube and then add 4 darts at the top of the body to bring in the top, leaving plenty of room for your hand to fit through.
Head and body connected with the neck tube.
If you want your hand to enter from the bottom, the tube works fine. For ventriloquism work though, you will want to either put an entry in the back of the puppet or cut a horseshoe shape out of the bottom back of the body. Make this cut high enough that the finished puppet rests easily on your arm with your hand and the head at the right height.
7. Build A Great Neck For Your Puppet
Your puppet neck is basically just a cloth tube. It will run from the entrance for your hand, at the bottom or back of the puppet up to the mouth, allowing you to easily slide your hand into place.
You need three measurements to make a puppet neck.
Measure around the top part of your puppet head, from one corner of the mouth to the other. Measure across the hinge of the mouth plate. Add these two numbers together. This will be the width of the fabric across the top of your neck.
Measure the circumference of the bottom of the puppet, if your hand will enter from the bottom. If entering from the back, measure your opening there. This will be your neck’s bottom width.
Measure from the top of the body to the hand entrance. To this, add 6-8 inches, depending on how high you want the head to stick up out of the body. You may make your neck longer than necessary and then adjust the length after the neck tube is sewn. Just be sure to trim from the bottom.
Once you have your measurements, cut out your fabric and sew a tube. There is your neck tube. You may want to make your tube a double cloth with a lycra or cotton liner on the inside.
Before cutting your fleece for the neck, be sure the stretch of the fabric goes across the neck and not up and down. A vertical stretch can result in a giraffe neck on your puppet.
8. Cover your Body with Fleece
Covering the body is as simple as making a tube the same size as the body and sliding it on. Make the body fleece about an inch longer than the body. This will allow you to bring it over the top and bottom of the body. Glue in place.
9. Attach The Head, Neck, and Body
When attaching the neck to the head, you want it to fall straight down, not angle out. Glue the neck to the bottom of the top head piece and across the mouth hinge.
The neck will now hang straight down. Glue the front of the neck to the back of the jaw, covering the thumb tube. Then cut a hole for your thumb and glue the fleece around the hole.
Glue or sew the bottom of the neck tube to the bottom or the hand entrance in the back of the body. Be sure to adjust the length of the neck so the head comes up the appropriate distance above the body. This will usually be about 6-8.”
10. Make Your Arms & Legs
Arms and legs are as simple as foam tubes covered with fleece. Arms should be about the length of the body. Once the hands are attached, the total length will look about right. Legs will be an inch or so longer.
Cover your foam tubes with fleece, then sew the tops shut. Glue the tops of the arms and legs to the body after you have hands and feet attached.
For elbows and knees, tie a thread or light wire around the foam before covering with fleece. The appendage ill bend where it is tied.
For more motion in arms and legs, you can cut the arm/leg in two at the joint or just put a notch on the back of the leg or front of the arm. Run a cord through the arm or leg. One end of the cord (shoelaces work great) will attach to hand or foot and the other end to the body.
If attached the legs or arms with a cord, cut a hole in the body. Glue heavy fabric or leather to both sides of the hole, and pierce this fabric. Thread the cord through the hole and knot or glue on the inside of the puppet.
Hands can be made posable by adding wire in them. This allows the hand to be posed into specific gestures or to hold props.
Wire inside hands allow for posing and holding props.
Hands can be glued to the end of the arm foam and then the fleece sewed to the fleece of the arm or you can use the cord method, running the cord from the hand, through the arm and attaching to the body. The fleece on hand and arm will still need to be sewn.
12. Will You Add Arm Rods?
You can add arm rods to your puppet to allow the puppeteer to move the arms. You can add one, or two. Young female ventriloquist Darci Lynne uses two arm rods on her mouse puppet, Oscar. On other puppets she uses one or none.
Details and instructions on building arm rods are available on my article HERE.
You can also just add a wooden dowel to the elbow of the puppet. is allows the puppeteer to move the arm without using a long, visually distracting rod.
13. Add Feet To Your Puppet
Feet can be as fancy as a carved foot for a barefoot puppet or as simple as a 3 inch by 1.5-inch by 1.5-inch shape if you are just stuffing it into a shoe.
My friend here has bare feet covered with fleece. Notice how the hat, clothing and missing tooth add to his character and already tell you what to expect from this guy.
14. Add Your Facial Features: Eyes, Ears, Nose
Add your nose, ears, and eyes after the puppet is assembled and covered. Eyes can be made out of ping pong balls, plastic spoons, craft foam or purchased online.
Be sure to see my turorial with instructions for making puppet eyes which is available HERE.
Ears can be as simple as half circles covered in fleece. Put thin wire around the edge of the ears and you can bend them and give them a little more shape.
Since ventriloquist puppets are often seen from the side, ears should not stick straight out. If they do they will be hard to see from the side. Rather, tack them back (more like your own ears) and they will be seen from all angles.
Your nose can be as simple as a Styrofoam ball covered with fleece, or you may want to carve a nose and cover it with fleece.
15. How To Add Hair To Your Puppet
For hair, you can use feathers, fur yarn or even a wig. Eyebrows can be fur or even pipe cleaners.
Loopy Yarn makes a comical hair.Fur from the craft store makes realistic hair.
16. Dress Your Puppet For Success
Clothing for the puppet can be children’s clothing or if you are talented, sew your own. Clothing says a lot about your character and it should fit well and communicate something about who your puppet is.
An old man may have plaid pants and a polo shirt where a businessman would have a vest or coat and tie. A younger character would dress more trendy. Children’s Halloween costumes can also be used.
A female character’s clothing will tell you about her, too. Tight revealing clothing would indicate a saucy lady where a more mature woman would have a house dress and apron.
17. Accessorize Your Character
Accessories like earrings, necklaces, chains, cell phones, or other items will tell a lot about your character. A hat also helps indicate age and interests. Glasses can change a puppet’s look and his personality, too.
I have an announcer puppet with a mock headset microphone. The microphone immediately tells the audience this character has something to say.
18. Bring Your Puppet To Life
Now you get to practice, practice, practice. Practice moving the puppet to make him/her appear alive. Puppets should never be still.
Have your puppet look at you when you speak to it and look to the audience when he speaks.
For more on how to communicate life with your puppet, be sure to read my article HERE.
Tom Crowl currently has the best ventriloquism course available. Helpful for beginners and experienced vents. Free lessons and a paid course are available at: Learn Ventriloquism HERE
Many times, as a childrens evangelist, I have had childrens ministry leaders and teachers tell me they wished they could grab the students’ attention the way I do. Others wish they could write lessons and puppet scripts. I am blessed to have a wild imagination to go with my passion for teaching children and adults.
In this article and others in my blog, you will discover the creative process I use to develop new VBS programs every year, Sunday school lessons and family messages and improve on old ones. I have skills in creating magical illusions, balloon sculpture and puppetry. I will refer to these skills often throughout the book. You may not have these skills, but you have your own.
My wife uses her ability to play mountain dulcimer and her story-telling skills to connect with kids during VBS. Other teachers use other skills, including things like painting, chalk art, ventriloquism, musical instruments and more.
The goal of this book is to motivate you to incorporate your talents, gifts, and interests into your teaching methods. I want to inspire your creativity.
LET’S BE CLEAR Throughout the article, I often refer to my school shows. I have been fortunate enough to support my family and be able to afford to minister at small churches with little or no budget by presenting science, math and educational shows. I have been in over 2400 schools in 30 states in the past 17 years, while having the freedom to schedule ministry programs and help churches.
I also make references to magic and magic tricks. The King James Bible never mentions magic. It mentions magicians. Daniel was a magician. The Hebrew word translated magician in the King James Bible means a scribe or wise man. They were advisers to the kings. Some good, some wicked.
When I present “magic” as an object lesson, I never use it to deceive or imply I have a special power. I always make it clear that what I do is a skill learned from years of practice. Not witchcraft or sorcery. It’s funny how some people think that stage magicians have demon power.
Although I use the word “magic” in my books, I do not use it in church meetings and programs. When used in the book, it always refers to an object lesson that is surprising, or as they say, “magical.”
MY AMAZING DISCOVERY
In 1998, I was preaching every week at the juvenile detention center in New Philadelphia, Ohio. I was blessed to do this for three years. The young people were always attentive and engaged. They enjoyed hearing the Bible lessons and being challenged. I asked by a church in Cambridge to come every Wednesday evening and help with their young teens ministry and give a weekly devotion. The kids were ages 10-14 and many from troubled homes.
The first week, I bombed. These kids had little interest in what I shared. I left, not wanting to ever go back. But I did. The next week, I tried to pump it up. I was enthusiastic and gesturing like a mad man. Again, the interest and interaction were meager at best.
After much prayer, I remembered that I knew how to turn two one dollar bills into a five dollar bill. The third week, I told the parable of the talents. I turned two five dollar bills into a twenty. Two ones into a five, (a slight variance on the Biblical account), and a one dollar bill didn’t change. I used the transformations to illustrate the story. The kids were riveted. They listened!
The pastor told me the following week that on the way home in the van, they couldn’t stop talking about the lesson.
I had invented what is known as “Gospel magic.” I later learned I was not the first to invent it.
I went to the library. I checked out magic books. I found effects that I could use to illustrate lessons. None of them required demons, witchcraft or any form of evil. Over the next three years, I became an accomplished magician. More importantly, I learned to develop messages that had eye appeal as well as ear and mind appeal.
I learned how to create object lessons that did not require “magic.” I taught myself balloon sculpture and used that. I became an expert at creating memorable lessons. My local librarian encouraged me to create educational programs for schools and libraries. This has allowed me the freedom to support my family, help small churches with few funds for an evangelist and set my own schedule, freeing me to minister as God opens the doors.
You, too, can become an expert at creating engaging and memorable lessons.
CREATIVITY
Creativity is the ability to consciously produce different and valuable results. An operational definition of creativity is the ability to make new connections between ideas or stuff. The evidence of creativity is observable behavior. It could be a poem, a solution to a math problem, dancing a new dance.
Creativity in education is desperation disguised as something wonderful. It comes from a teacher trying to reach every student in the classroom. Not just the gifted students, the slower students, the mainstream students, the auditory learners, the tactile learners, but every single student in the classroom needs to understand the concepts. The task seems impossible.
Desperation and impossibilities come together and creativity is born.
Creativity is ignoring the conventional lesson plans at least once in a while to reach a student who needs a different approach. It’s an open mind to any idea that is not harmful to a child. Creativity is the real reason most teachers wanted the job in the first place. Creativity is seeing education with the wanderlust of a child.
There is no ideal model or one best way to be creative. Just as there are multiple styles of intelligence, there are multiple styles of creativity, or talents, within this definition. These talents can each produce different and valuable results. Results can take a multitude of forms. Results require both sides of the brain. And no one way of being creative is better than another. They are just different!
THE FIRST RULE OF CREATIVITY
The first rule to being creative is to create. Look at a problem or situation and think of a solution. No matter how unusual, or unseemly, think of a solution.
Use your imagination
It doesn’t matter what you create of how you create, it’s just that you create something. We are designed and created to be creators. God himself is the greatest of all creators and we are created in his image. We are each unique. We each look differently, act differently and think differently. Therefore, we should all be expected to express ourselves differently. Creativity is achieved by expressing ourselves in unique and different ways.
You may think, “Teaching children is hard for me. Wouldn’t it be great if a martian could come and teach it for me.” A silly idea, yes. But how could you incorporate it into your teaching?
Could you create a puppet skit with a space theme? Maybe your puppet wants to be an astronaut and fly to heaven. You could then explain the only way to heaven is through Jesus. Could you create coloring sheets with the planets and a Bible verse on how God create the stars and moon? Could you get some photos from NASA, showing the vastness of space and the amazing things scientists have seen with the Hubble telescope? Use those to talk about what an amazing God we have?
Isn’t this fun?
MY CREATIVITY
My inspiration always seems to come from a challenge. I’m a deadline kind of guy. I often wait until the last minute to create a lesson, write an article or even develop a show. This gets my creative juices flowing as I dash to meet the deadline.
We do VBS every year for a church in Alpena, Michigan. We have other churches we do every other year. That means I can’t have just one program and do it every year. I could probably get by with 3 or 4 shows and repeat them, but I like to do something different every year. This keeps it fresh both for the hosting church, but for my wife and me.
Two years ago, we did a pirate theme. Now lots of folks do pirate themes, but they always end up glorifying pirates. For years, I wanted to do one, but that last thing I wanted was good guy pirates. Pirates are bad. To present them any other way glorifies sin.
In the 1700’s and 1800’s, America had river pirates on the Mississippi and other rivers. I came up with the idea of a riverboat theme. I did part of our program as a riverboat captain. My wife became No-Beard the Pirate. Hers was a silent character, but tricky. Each night during the week, I would start an object lesson and be distracted by my pirate puppet Jack Spareribs. At that time, my wife would sneak in, in costume, and do something to sabotage the lesson. One night, while my back was turned, she switched my raccoon puppet with a skunk puppet.
On the last day, she interrupted me and attempted to swipe my treasure chest, containing “ The World’s Greatest Treasure.” I then informed her I had been trying to catch up with her to give her the treasure. In the chest was a Bible, indeed, “The World’s Greatest Treasure.” We had fun but also showed the need to evangelize the lost and love our enemies.
Another year, I was influenced by the USA Network’s slogan, “Characters Wanted.” I changed it to “Character Wanted” and we did a week on building Christ-like character. We had many characters that week including the Selfish Sultan, Oliver the Octopus and Freida the Frog.
This is funny, but also presents the ideas in a way children can remember.
To learn more about being creative and developing engaging lessons, see these articles:
