This lion puppet craft is a fun way to encourage creativity and storytelling while strengthening scissor skills and hand-eye coordination. For this craft, you will use brown and yellow construction paper to make a lion puppet that is perfect for storytelling and pretend play.
Materials You’ll Need:
- Yellow and brown construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue sticks
- Straws
- Tape
- Printer
- Black Marker
- Lion Puppet Craft Printable Template (Click Here to Grab the PDF)
Directions:
1. Download and print the Lion Puppet Craft template.
Printing Instructions: From the print options window, select the “fit to page” option, sometimes called the “scale to fit” option. This will create a margin and prevent the image from being cut off during the printing process.
2. Cut around the outline of the lion face and lion mane.
3. Trace the lion face template onto yellow construction paper and cut around the outline. Draw the lion’s face with a black marker, using the template as a guide.
4. Trace the lion mane template onto light brown construction paper and cut around the outline.
5. Snip carefully from the outside edge of the lion mane piece toward the middle to create the look of fur.
6 Glue the lion’s face onto the middle of the mane.
7. Finally, tape a straw onto the back side to complete the lion puppet!
Tips:
You can skip steps three and four and color the copy paper with markers or crayons if you don’t want to use construction paper.
Time to Play!
Once the lion puppet is complete, kids can use it to act out stories, retell stories, or create their own adventures. Encourage them to act out scenes from the book, practice social skills by role-playing, or even make their own versions of the story with their puppets.
Happy crafting!
A Book to Go Along With This Craft
If you’re looking for a fun and creative way to engage young learners before or after this lion puppet craft, check out the book Dandelion by Don Freeman, a charming story about a lion who nobody recognizes.
