Fables from
around the world!

Aunt Annie's Crafts

Puppets Around the World

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About the projects

Lights…camera…action! You’re the director and the star of your own show with these handmade puppets. Cultures on every continent use puppets to tell their stories, teach their beliefs, and just for fun! Take part in an ancient tradition by making your own puppets, and bring them to life with plays and fables from around the world.

Your story can take place anywhere, and your puppets can do anything you can imagine. Would you like to explore the beautiful beaches of Fiji, turn into a fierce and powerful tiger, or build your own teepee? With the puppets below, anything is possible.

So browse this page for descriptions and illustrations of each puppet project, and then decide what story you want to tell today!

The projects range in difficulty from VERY EASY to AVERAGE.

Stick Puppets - Start your adventures with some simple stick puppets and shadow puppets! Your new ocean friends will help you put on a play based on a fable from the Fiji Islands: The Great Shark God.

VERY EASY
Animated Stick Puppets - Pep up your puppets by giving them the ability to move! In the puppet play, The Defeat of Great Glooskap, you’ll see how a baby can defeat a great Algonquin warrior.

EASY
Finger Puppets - Lions, tigers, and bears—oh my! It must be time to go to the circus. Create acrobat, strongman, clown, and elephant finger puppets for your very own circus. Then, invite your friends and family to the show!

VERY EASY
Paper Bag Hand Puppets - Make funny, talking hand puppets from simple paper bags, and perform Clever Gretel, a play based on a Brothers Grimm folktale from Germany. But watch out—Gretel is hungry!

EASY
Toilet Paper Tube Puppets - Winter in Latvia is long and cold. What will the Farmer and his family do to make it through? Use empty toilet paper tubes to make these finger puppets, and find out what happens when the family takes Grandfather's Advice.

EASY
Paper Cone Finger Puppets - Have you ever tried to trick someone? The wily Fox has—and he knows just what to say to keep Tiger from eating him in this play, Officer of Heaven, based on a Chinese folktale. This easy paper cone finger puppet project is perfect for classroom crafting.

EASY
Two-Finger Puppets - In this project make finger puppets that are animated with your two fingers—these being the legs of the puppet. The puppets in this project are very simple—just print, color, cut and glue. Next, take the puppets and put on a play: The Medicine-man, from an Australian Aboriginal fable.

VERY EASY