Banana Buddy

You'll go bananas for this puppet project. Join expert puppeteer John Kennedy and his pal Tabitha as they make a really cool squeeze mouth Banana Buddy. Give it a squeeze to make it talk!

permanent black marker
permanent yellow marker
pencil
scissors
glue
one 10”x 4” piece of 2” thick foam rubber
six 3/16” white pom-poms
two 3/8” white pom-poms
two 3/16” black pom-poms

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. First trace out a pattern of the puppet, you can find these patterns on the Activity TV website. Trace out the pattern on your piece of foam and then cut it out using your safety scissors. Then, with a single cut of your scissors, make a slit in the foam where the mouth should be on the banana.
2. Taper the top and the bottom of the banana by making a single cut along the edge of each corner. You will need to make 4 cuts total, tapering the end of the banana until it’s almost a point.
3. Continue to taper the edges on the top and bottom of the banana. Now cut the corners near the face to make “peel panels.”
4. Make smaller cuts around the face to add facial details. First, cut up along the bridge of the nose. This will determine the angle of the nose. Next cut down from where the eyebrows will be meeting your last nose cut. Remove a triangle of foam from the face of your banana. The higher the angle of your eyebrow cut the happier your banana will look.
5. Create your eye sockets. Make two cuts, one angled up and one angled down, on either side of the banana’s nose. This will determine the width of your banana’s nose and eye sockets.
6. By this time you should have a rough profile of the face, with the nose and eye sockets clearly defined. Now it’s time to smooth the rough and chunky edges of your Banana Buddy’s face. With your scissors, carefully snip around the edges of the face.
7. Now that your banana is smooth it’s time to go back in and define the nose. A good scissor cut that you can use is called a “divot” cut. To do this you open your scissors just a tiny bit and then you press the tip into the nose. Press the scissors in deep and then make your cut. This will really give your nose definition and character.
8. Now that we’ve formed the face it’s time to bring it to life. Take your black magic marker and shade in the mouth, eye sockets, eyebrows, and the top and bottom tips of the banana. Remember that the longer you press the marker against the foam the darker the part will be.
9. Now that the banana has been filled in with black marker…the last thing we need to do is add the eyes and the teeth. Begin by gluing on small white pom-poms for the teeth. When your teeth are in place it’s time to glue in the larger white pom-poms for your eyes and the black pom-poms will be the pupils.