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Stick Man Paper Plate Puppet Craft

Stick Man is a firm favourite amongst children, parents and teachers alike, and with good reason; Julia Donaldson has a gift for funny and entrancing poetry that tells a story and takes you on a journey – and best of all – this one is Christmas themed! Once children have heard a story, they often want to retell it in their own words, and this is an actually a really good opportunity to encourage children to develop their speaking and listening skills, as well as early literacy. With that in mind, we’ve created a free Stick Man paper plate puppet craft printable that you can download right here on Rainy Day Mum. This craft includes a variety of skills and learning opportunities including fine motor skills, creativity, art, DT, literacy, communication skills and more! Let’s take a look at creating a Stick Man Paper Plate Puppet Craft to make with Kids.

Stick Man Paper Plate Puppet Craft for Story Retelling

What you need to create your Stick Man Paper Plate Craft

Paper plates

Craft sticks

Printer

Printer ink

Colouring materials e.g. felt tip pens

Scissors

Craft knife

The Stick Man paper plate puppet craft printable scroll down to the bottom to find the link to download this for your kids to make

How to Make your Paper Plate Stick Man Puppet

Within the printable there are a few options for you – so perhaps let your child decide how they would like to make this craft.

We have made a pre-prepared wintery background to colour in and stick on a paper plate as your puppets’ background, and we have also created a blank version for you to create your own.

What you can do is actually print more than one copy of the blank version to create a variety of backgrounds, perhaps going through each scene of the story.

Best of all, we’ve also included some stick on background elements for a beach scene, a Christmas scene (and more) so if drawing isn’t your thing – you can use those! These elements can also be turned into extra puppets if you need them as well.

Materials needed to make a Paper Plate Stick Man Puppet to retell the story

  1. Print out the printable.
  2. Then cut out the stick man, his wife and their three children and attach then each to a craft stick. For the adult sticks, attach the craft stick at least half way up the puppet, otherwise, it can be a bit floppy. You could print the puppet elements onto card if you want a firmer result.
  3. Colour in the prepared wintry plate background, or you can colour in and stick the scenery decals onto the blank background template instead – whichever you prefer.
  4. Cut around the background of your choice and stick onto a paper plate.Stick Man characters and background ready to retell the story with kids
  5. Taking your craft knife, cut a line straight across the background and plate (as pictured), or slightly curved, large enough for your stick people to move around a little. Remember not to let young children anywhere near your craft knife, and use a suitable object underneath so you don’t scrape your table.
  6. At this stage you can now start thinking about the rest of the story and create additional scenes so your child can act out the story as you read through the book. You can either use the cut out images as decals for the background, or as extra stick puppets to pop onto craft sticks.

How to use the Stick Man paper plate puppet craft

First of all, read through the whole of the Stick Man book, pick out scenes that your child can relate to, or that raise their interest – focus on these scenes to make as part of your puppet show. After you’ve made the craft together, say the lines of the character using a silly voice as you use each of the stick puppets, modelling how to use expression.

Stick Man Characters for paper plate craft ideal for use in retelling the story

Make extra stick puppets using craft sticks, and ask your child how they might be feeling in various parts of the story, what sort of voice would they have.

Act out some of the scenes together – or add in extra (funny!) bits.

Possible extension activities

Ask your child to imagine a slightly different story ending and use the puppets to act it out together – what would have happened if Stick Man had not helped Santa? Could Stick Man have escaped in the other parts of the story? What if the Stick Lady had been with Stick Man – or his children had been there? How might things have worked out differently?

Christmas Stick Man Paper Plate Craft with free printable to use

Challenge your children to practise their puppet show and perform it to the whole family on Christmas Day!

<< Download your Printable Stick Man Puppet Characters and Background Here >>

This post has been written by the founder of creative learning resources website Mrs Mactivity, for more Christmas crafts resources and printables.

You can also sign up to Mrs Mactivity or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

More Stick Man Activities for Kids

Simple Stick Man Craft for Kids to Make after Reading the book by Julia Donaldson
STEM Activity for Preschoolers to build number inspired by the Stick Man by Julia Donaldson
Stick Man by Julia Donaldson inspired Tuff Spot for Kids showing 4 seasons to explore and play

Create your own Stick Man with this Salt Dough Stick Man Craft for Kids.

Practice Numbers with this FREE printable mats to create stick digital numbers inspired by the Stick Man book.

Another fun way to retell the story of the Stick Man is through Small World Play set up this Invitation to Play in the Tuff Spot Inspired by Stick Man.

Another fun Stick Man Craft to create a pretty Sun Catcher.

Why not Pin this Stick Man Paper Plate Craft and Puppets to Make Later

Make your own Stick Man Paper Plate Puppet Show ideal for kids to retell this fun story by Julia Donaldson. Include Free Printable characters and background

Author
Cerys Parker

Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, teacher, mum, and home educator from the UK. She loves getting creative, whether it is with simple and easy crafts and ideas, activities to make learning fun, or delicious recipes that you and your kids can cook together you'll find them all shared here on Rainy Day Mum.

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