Rainy Days Kid’s Crafts – Spoon Puppets

This is a great project for young children. Wooden spoons are very cheap to buy – you can pick them up in any of the big supermarkets for 25p or less – and you don't have to spend any extra on embellishments if you don't want to. Most people have scraps of material, wool, odd buttons, tin foil, etc, in their home which are just as useful for making a wooden spoon puppet as the googley eyes, fun foam and other specialist craft items.

You will need:

Wooden spoon(s)
Paint
PVA glue
Craft materials for decoration – googley/wiggley eyes, glitter, pom poms, fun foam, pipe cleaners, wool, etc

First of all, you will need to paint the wooden spoon and leave it to dry. It should dry very quickly, but if you are doing this craft project with a particularly impatient toddler you may want to have the spoon(s) already painted before you start.

Next you or your child will need to decide on a theme. A simple but effective idea is a farmyard theme, and the finished puppets can be used for narrating nursery rhymes such as Old MacDonald. For a pig or a cow, cut a nose, two ears and four legs out of fun foam. Then glue these on, along with a pair of googley eyes. For the pig, make a twirly tail from a pink pipe cleaner and glued it to the back of the spoon.

For a cockerel, cut two wings and a beak out of fun foam and glue these on, along with two googley eyes. You can use two yellow pom poms for the feet and two red skeleton leaves or colourful craft feathers for the plumage on top of his head.

Another simple theme to do with a young child is ‘monsters'. If you cover the spoon with glitter glue then it is very easy for them to stick on sequins, pom poms, beads, etc, without help from an adult, so they are much more able to use their imagination.

Leanne Williams is a contributing writer to many websites. Her articles include advice on purchasing moses basket bedding and swaddling blankets.