Dirty Spoon Puppet

Join Puppeteer John Kennedy as he creates a Totally Gross Puppet! Everyone knows it's fun to play with your food but what about your utensils? Get ready to learn how to make your own Dirty Spoon Puppets!

Wooden spoon
Glue
Paint or food coloring
Fishing line
Ring
Rubber band or elastic
Template
Poster board or cardboard
Paper plate
Paper towel
Macaroni
Various beans
Black marker
Scissors
Hole punch
Paintbrush

REMEMBER THAT IT'S IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS WORK UNDER ADULT SUPERVISION. SOMETIMES WE USE OBJECTS THAT COULD BE HARMFUL, LIKE SCISSORS, SO DON'T EVER ATTEMPT TO MAKE THESE PUPPETS ALONE.

1. Print out the templates and trace them onto your poster board. Trace the second, smaller pattern just beneath the larger pattern. The larger one will the part of the puppet’s mouth that moves while the smaller one will be the piece that holds the mouth in place when you make your puppet talk. Cut them out.
2. Use a hole punch to punch out the hole in the larger pattern. You’ll need to attach string through this hole later to make the puppet talk.
3. Take a wooden spoon and arrange the patterns where they need to be. The larger mouth pattern needs to be lined up at the bottom of the head of the spoon facing into it while the smaller pattern should go just beneath it on the top of the handle.
4. Before you glue your patterns down, take a rubber band or piece of elastic, give it a twist, and wrap it around the spoon, making sure it fits into the outer notches of the mouth pattern. This will also help hold the mouth piece in place when you operate the puppet.
5. Cut a foot of fishing line and tie it through the hole of the mouth pattern and around the elastic. Make sure the knot is really tight. Make several knots if you have to. Trim away any excess line at the top.
6. Use some food coloring and glue to make a ‘special sauce’ that will cover the spoon. Stir it up on a paper plate with a paint brush.
7. Paint your glue mixture onto your spoon and patterns. Be sure to paint underneath the bottom cardboard piece but not the top mouth piece because it needs to be able to move. Be sure to also put some on the back of the spoon to hold the elastic in place.
8. Stick some macaroni around the inside of the spoon to make your puppet’s face. Make eyes, a nose, and an upper lip. Add more of your glue mixture as needed to make sure your macaroni stays in place. Glue a piece of macaroni onto the top rim of your moveable mouth pattern for your bottom lip and then another piece beneath that on the pattern for the chin. Add some macaroni the top of the spoon head for hair and set everything aside to dry for several hours.
9. Add beans to the eyes and face of your puppet with glue to give it pupils and blemishes. Let those dry.
10. Take a black permanent marker, open up the mouth piece, and color in the part of the spoon underneath it.
11. To operate the spoon, hold up the spoon by a handle and figure out where you want to attach the plastic ring for your finger on the fishing line. Tie the ring on where you want the end of the line to be and cut off any excess.
12. Now place your finger through the attached ring and pull on the line to make the puppet’s bottom lip move so it looks like it’s talking!