Dragon Sock Puppets-a “waka waka” good time!

Not all of our workshops are a success for a series of different reasons-the project is too complicated or the kids don’t mix well together. This past Saturday at FunLab, however, was a blast! We had the kids put together funny sock puppets and then (tried to) create a little show. I was inspired to make a dragon puppet as an example and that is what the kids ended up wanting to make. We were even able to recycle some old milk containers to use as the inside of our puppet’s mouth-a little reminder of Earth Day.

Keep this project in mind as it is the perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon.  I do not know if I had more fun making the dragon or watching the kids have them dance to Shakira’s Waka Waka…

You will need:

Step 1: Make the mouth. The mouth of the puppet is what gives it character. A lot of blogs suggest cutting the sock in relation to the space between your thumb and pointer finger but I was worried about the kids making a mess of it so….I asked my Dad for a suggestion. He suggested gluing a cardboard oval to the inside of the sock where I wanted the mouth to be and HE WAS RIGHT. You need to use a resistant cardboard that is not too bulky. As I had a bunch of empty tetrapack milk containers on hand, I decided to try them out. Cut down the side of the container and cut off the top and bottom. Rinse and dry completely. Draw an oval that will completely cover the toe area of our sock. I drew them so that the center of the oval was on one of the folds of the box.

Step 2: Glue the mouth together. Cut out a piece of red felt the same size as your cardboard oval. We had the kids trace the oval onto the fabric before cutting it out. Cut out a lizard tongue from another color of felt. Turn the sock inside out. Place it so that the heel is facing down. Glue the cardboard onto the toe area. Turn the sock right side out. Glue the red felt over the cardboard. Glue on the tongue. I used hot glue so that the puppets could be used immediately but fabric glue also works.

Step 3: Put the eyes together. Have the kids pick out two good sized pom poms that are the same color. Glue the pom poms to the sock and then glue the google eyes onto the pom poms.

Step 4: The final touches. We had the kids cut out a series of triangles to glue on the back of the sock so that it looked like a crest. I tried to convince the kids to make nostrils but they wanted to play so we stopped here.

Besides this being a fun and easy project, we also had a great group of kids. Not all of them knew each other and it was nice to see new friends being made.

If you have time for a giggle, look how these dragons sing Mamma Mia and Waka Waka!