Pool Noodle Hand Puppets

Puppet-making is a wonderful project for children, libraries, students, and families. Hand puppets are easy to make and fun to use, but constructing heads can be a challenge. Stuffing? Papier-Mache? Wood carving? You need an easy-to-get, easy-to-use material. How about . . . POOL NOODLES? if you had fun around the pool all summer, you probably have a few of these long tubes of foam stretched out around your patio. If not, the discount dollar stores in your area usually have a bunch of them sticking out of a cardboard box, at a bargain price and in a variety of colors. One of the best features of pool noodles for puppet-making is the hole that goes up the middle of the tube, the perfect place to put a finger to hold up the head! As a bonus, this Instructable will also show you how to make an oh-so-easy no-sew body for your puppet!

Let's begin!

Pool Noodle--They come in different widths, lengths, and colors. I'm using an orange noodle because that was the only color my neighborhood dollar store had.

Craft Foam (Adhesive-Backed)--Using the adhesive-backed variety means I don't have to bother with glue. If you don't want to cut out the features, craft stores and some dollar stores sell bags of pre-cut basic shapes (circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, triangles) that can be used for eyes, ears, noses, and mouths.

Googly Eyes (Sticky-Backed)--They stick on the pool noodle, and the jiggly pupils look cool. Eyes can also be made out of craft foam pieces,

Cloth--Felt or light-weight cotton fabric makes a good puppet body.

Rubber Band--Essential for the Easy-Make Body.

Scissors--Trim the foam, cut the cloth, but don't trim your fingers!

Optional Extras--Feathers, glue, beads, ruler for measuring, markers for adding details, and odd objects you might have or get.

Pool noodles come in different diameter widths. For a basic puppet head, I cut or saw off a section about an inch longer than the noodle's diameter--your preference may differ.

Decide where you want to put the eyes on the head. Stick them on if you are using pre-glued googly eyes. If they have no adhesive, glue them to the noodle. If you want to make eyes that don't jiggle, cut the shapes out of sticky craft foam or felt you can glue for the whites and pupils, then "stick it to the man," You can even make pupils by drawing with a permanent marker.

The simplest mouth shape is a straight line or a circle, but this puppet wanted to smile, so I cut a curved section off the edge of a sheet of craft foam.

Cut out a round or oval piece of craft foam for the nose (Pre-shaped pieces from craft or dollar stores will work, too.). Cutting a foam circle in two makes a pair of ears.

To create hair and cover the hole in the top of the pool noodle, make a circle the size of the noodle and stick it on. There are two ways to do make the circle:

1--Put the end of the noodle on the craft foam and cut around it.

2--Put the noodle end on the craft foam, draw a circle around the edge, and cut it.

Decide how long you want the hair to be, and how far the hair should go around the head. Cut a piece that matches the hairstyle you want to have, and stick it on.

Inside the body of a hand puppet is......a hand. There are two ways to form the body with your hand and hold up the head--the Trigger Grip and the Vulcan Puppet Grip. Which is best for the puppet depends on the size of the person's hand and the size of the hole in the pool noodle.

For larger fingers and smaller holes, use the Trigger Grip (left picture)--the thumb and the middle finger will be the arms, and the index finger will hold up the head.

For smaller fingers and larger holes, the Vulcan Puppet Grip (right picture) may work better--thumb for one arm, index and middle finger to support the head, and the ring and little fingers form the other arm.

I prefer the Vulcan Puppet Grip. Using all the fingers avoids having a lump in the belly of the puppet where the ring and little fingers are bent. Having the arms farther apart means the puppet can pick up larger and heavier objects.

An 18-inch square of cloth is a good size for small hands, while a 24-inch square works well for larger hands. Hold the hand in whichever puppet grip you plan to use. Drape the cloth over the hand.

Now you need the rubber band that has been sitting there all this time.

I learned how to do the Easy-Make Body from Glenda Bonin, a storyteller I met many years ago.

Hang the rubber band over the cloth over the thumb, and give the band a twist with the hand that held it. Next, put the end that is being held over the part of the hand that will hold the head, and twist it. Finally, put it over the finger or fingers that will be the other arm. You now have a headless puppet!

Put the head onto the center section of the cloth, and the puppet is complete--unless you want to fancy up his outfit.

Individualize the puppets you make--different head sizes, different features. Here are a few samples:

Frankie--A longer section of pool noodle gives him a bigger, monstrous head. Black craft foam for the hair, bangs, and eyes. White foam for the metal straps holding the skull together, green foam for the mouth, nose, unibrow, and eye bags. the bolts were made of several small circles of gray foam, with a larger circle for the head of each bolt. The scar, and the grooves on the top of the bolts were done with markers.

She--Black foam for the eyelashes, with stick-on eyes. Yellow foam for her hair and bangs, an orange foam nose. Two pieces of red foam made the lips.

He--He was the model for this Instructable, so you know how he was built.

Conrad the Birdie--I used a shorter section of the noodle for the bird's head. The topknot is made from two pieces of foam, joined, cut, and spread out to cover the hole in the noodle top. Each eye is two circles of foam. The top of the beak is a triangle, folded, then spread where it joins the noodle, squeezed at the sides, and trimmed at the tip end to give it shape. The bottom of the beak is a smaller triangle, folded. spread, and stuck on.

After a while, the adhesive on the foam and the stick-on eyes tends to loosen. Glue will help hold things together.

Use your imagination. If you want to make a one eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater, do it!