A fun and simple craft for preschool age kids! Our new Color-Me™ Paper Finger Puppets come in 3 different shapes to inspire kids to create their favorite animals or creatures. They can be decorated with markers, watercolor, and other easy craft materials. The puppets are made out heavy weight uncoated card stock. The shapes come in a pack of 24, so this is a great group craft activity. Have the kids put on a Puppet Show after they create their finger puppets. Kids’ fingers become the legs to the puppets!

This activity is great for creativity, character development, and active play. Kids feel more comfortable sharing their emotions and feeling when using items like puppets.

To easily follow the instructions for each animal, here is a free printable download!

Materials needed:

• Color-Me™ Paper Finger Puppets
• Markers
• Watercolor
• Fine tip marker

Other craft materials:

• Yarn
• Glitter glaze
• Wiggly eyes
• Pom poms
• Chenille stems
• Construction paper

How to Make Finger Puppets

1. Plan out your design, sketch in pencil
2. Paint using watercolor, tempera or acrylic or markers, crayons, etc. Let it dry.
3. Add embellishments, yarn, gems, glitter glue…let dry and play!

Tip: If you use markers, add a small amount of water to the surface with a paintbrush to reduce the number of streaks/lines. 

Here are 5 different examples made by Crafty Kate!

Unicorn

Use pink watercolor to color the unicorn. After it dries, brush the surface with glitter glaze. Draw the eye, nose, and mouth with a fine tip black marker. Use card stock to make the horn, then glue it on after decorating. Cut out pieces of variegated yarn for the mane and tail. Glue or tape them on.

Zebra

Sketch out the stripes with pencil first. Use a thin paintbrush and black watercolor to paint on the stripes. Let it dry. Draw the eyes, nose, and mouth with fine black marker. Use purple watercolor for the ears and nose. Cut out the tail using card stock paper, add stripes, then glue a piece of black yarn for the bottom of the tail, or draw it with black marker.

Bumble Bee

Color the bee with yellow watercolor. Let it dry. Then use a black marker to add the stripes. Draw black circles for the eyes with marker, then glue wiggly eyes over them so they have a black outline. Draw the mouth with a fine tip markers. Cut pieces of chenille stems for the antenna – don’t forget to curl the ends! Tape them to the back with duct tape so they stay up. Lastly, cut out wings using construction paper and glue/tape them to the back. Tip: Draw a heart on the paper, then cut it out and cut in half for two wings!

Tabby Cat

Color the entire piece of card stock with an orange watercolor. Then add water to spread out the color and eliminate streaks. Outline the cat’s face, arms, and tail with a black marker. Give him a tabby look by adding a darker shade of orange for the stripes. Draw the eyes, nose, mouth and whiskers with marker. You can get creative and give him wiggly eyes or draw a collar and add a gem for the name tag!

Bunny

Color the bunny with blue marker. Then go over it with water to give it a textured look. Cut out ears using blue construction paper and glue/tape them to the back. Then cut out white teeth using construction paper. Glue on pom poms for the nose and mouth, then add wiggly eyes!

Learn how to make a DIY Puppet Theater to go along with these finger puppets!