How to Make A Farmer Puppet… Out of A Soda Bottle…

Meet our Farmer puppet…

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Let’s Meet The Players:

For the head:

  • A small balloon, we used a water bomb balloon.
  • Wall paper paste glue.
  • Strips of newspaper.

For the body:

  • An empty soda bottle.
  • A skewer.
  • Some fabric scraps.
  • Some white project glue, slightly diluted so that it is easier to spread.

Let’s Play the Game:

  1. The Farmers Head:
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    • Begin by mixing your wall paper paste according to the instructions on the packaging…
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    • Covered the balloon in strips of paper that had been soaked in the glue. Wonderful messy project!!!
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      Leave your head to dry overnight.
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      Once the farmers head is dry you can put another layer of paper and glue on it if you like, but we found one layer to be enough.
  2. The Farmer’s Body:
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    • Ask an adult to cut the base off the cooldrink bottle and make sure there are no sharp edges. Then get an adult to poke two holes in your bottle so that you can pass the skewer through the soda bottle to make arms.
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    • Next comes the fun part, choose from some old fabric scraps to make clothes for your farmer.
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    • We chose denim for his trousers and white cotton for his shirt…
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    • Smother the fabric in the slightly diluted project glue and wrap the fabric around the puppet.
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    • Don’t forget the arms, cover them in fabric as well…
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    • Finally we made him a waistcoat… cut two slits in a rectangle of fabric, so that the waistcoat fits over the arms…
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    • Wrap the waistcoat around your puppet, there should be enough fabric on the puppet already for the waist coat to stick to the puppet… And his body is done.
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  3. Finishing Up:
    • Once the paper mache head was completely dry we popped the balloon and cut out a small hole in the bottom of the head, so that it would fit snugly over the top of the bottle.
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    • A whole lot of painting went on…
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    • Once the paint was dry our head was ready to pop onto the body…
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    • A dab of glue will keep the head in place…

    Here he is:

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    Howdy folks…
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    Tomorrow we will show you how to make the farmers wife…

8 Replies to “How to Make A Farmer Puppet… Out of A Soda Bottle…”

  1. New you would like him, KM… Brace yourself for a week of puppets that I think you may love and make!!!

  2. Hay KM, Knew you would like him!!! Brace yourself for at least a week of puppets you are going to love!!! Hope you are having some fine summer!!!

  3. Love it. Recycling and fun at its best. I hope the children are suitably pleased. “Farmer needs a wife…”

  4. Oh Cheryl, The farmers wife is on the way!!! Lots of puppet fun going on around here!!! Hope you all have a great week!!!

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