Mummy Rod Puppet

Join Puppeteer John Kennedy in creating a puppet only your mummy would be proud of!

Ladle
String
Two drinking straws
Styrofoam ball
Two wooden dowels
Paintbrush
Black paint
Scissors
Glue
Sports tape

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. Find a ladle that will serve as the back of the head, the body, and the handle for your puppet. Then find a Styrofoam ball that will fit inside the ladle. This will be the face of the mummy.
2. Leaving the Styrofoam ball in the ladle, use your thumbs to press eyes, a nose, and a mouth into it.
3. Use sports tape to wrap the ball into the ladle. To get started, cut a foot-long strip of tape and press it onto the mummy’s nose, into its eye sockets, and around the rest of the face to attach the ends to the back of the ladle. This will keep the ball from falling out while you wrap everything else.
4. Start at the top of the head and wrap your way down around the rest of the head. Be sure to press the tape into the eye sockets, nose, and mouth indentations as you do it so that the mummy’s face will show through the wrapping.
5. Continue wrapping from the head all of the way down the rest of the ladle. Cut off any excess tape you have at the bottom.
6. To make the arms, start by cutting off a couple feet of string and tying it around the neck of your mummy. Try to make sure the knot around the neck is in the center of the string so the arms will be equal length.
7. Next, take two drinking straws and cut them each in half.
8. Thread the string arms through your straw pieces, putting two on each arm. Now your mummy’s arms will have structure and bendable elbows.
9. Tie a wooden dowel at the tip to the end of each string where the hands of the mummy would be.
10. Cut off any excess string and use more tape to further secure the rods the ends of the arms. Try to ball up the tape around the ends to make fists for your mummy and add more tape to secure that.
11. Wrap more tape around the straw arms. Make sure to keep the elbow joints flexible in the tape.
12. Place a bit of tape around the mummy’s neck where the string is knotted to keep that in place.
13. Paint the dowel rods black. Avoid getting paint on the mummy and yourself. Let them dry.
14. To operate the puppet, pick it up by the handle with one hand and operate the dowels with the other. Work the arms with the rods by holding them in place with your pinky and pushing them back and forth with your thumb and index finger.