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Teaching artist Julie Dansby explains how to make a tabletop rod puppet out of newspaper and a few other simple materials, and how to use movement to bring this puppet to life. 

Vocabulary You Will Learn:

• Tabletop rod puppet—A puppet whose limbs and head are operated using rods, and who uses a table as a stage. 
• Jointing—The act of assembling a puppet and connecting it at the joints.

Materials You Will Need:

• Five craft sticks (you can also use pencils or chopsticks)
• Masking tape 
• Scissors
• Several full-sized sheets of newspaper

How to Create Your Own Tabletop Rod Puppet

1. After your materials are gathered, start by taking a full-sized sheet of newspaper and crumple it into a loose ball. This will become the torso of your puppet. Then, take a half-sized sheet of newspaper (you can create it by ripping a full-sized sheet in half) and wrap it around the ball you just created, securing it with a piece of masking tape. 
2. Next, you’re going to make the hips for the puppet. Take a half-sized sheet of paper and crumple it to make a long, potato-like shape. Then wrap it in a quarter-sized sheet of paper, and secure it with a piece of tape. 
3. Making the head of your puppet comes next. For this part, you need to put one of your craft sticks into the newspaper. Place the craft stick on a half-sheet of newspaper while it lays flat, and then ball the newspaper up around the stick so it’s sticking halfway out. Then, wrap up the ball in a quarter-sheet of paper and secure it with tape. Make sure you also add lots of tape to secure the craft stick in place, so it doesn’t fall out. 
4. Now, you are going to make the limbs of your puppet by creating several long tubes of newspaper. Take a half-sheet of paper and roll it up the long way. The tube should be about a half-inch in diameter, or the width of a grown-up’s fingertip. Secure the tube with tape, so that it doesn’t come unrolled, and cut it into four equal pieces. If you have some left over, you can cut it into two small pieces to use for the feet!
5. Repeat step four again, so that you have enough tubes for both the puppet’s arms and legs.
6. Now it’s time to assemble, or joint, your puppet! You will create joints using a tape-on-tape method, where the sticky sides of the tape meet to create a flexible bond. Starting with the head (and with the craft stick oriented to the back of the head), take a long piece of masking tape and stick one end of it to the back of the puppet’s head, right at the base of the craft stick. Run the other end of the tape down the back of the puppet’s torso, leaving a gap of a couple of inches between head and torso. Then, take a second piece of tape and attach it to the puppet’s chin; at the gap, the sticky side should connect to the sticky side of the first piece of tape, and the rest of the length should run down the front of the torso. The connected tape between the puppet’s head and torso will become its neck!

7. Next, attach the puppet’s torso to its hips. Repeat the same process of attaching two pieces of tape that you did to connect the head and torso, again leaving a gap in between, where the sticky sides of the tape can connect to form a joint. This will become the puppet’s waist. 
8. To create your arms and legs, take two of the newspaper tubes you created and lay them end to end so they are just touching. Lay a piece of tape gently over them to connect them. Then, bend them where the tape is so they are laying parallel, and stand them up so the non-taped ends are facing down . Lay another piece of tape gently across the top of the two tubes. This strip of tape should connect  with the one below where they overlap, sticky side to sticky side, creating a joint that bends only one way.
9. Repeat step 8 three more times, so you now have two arms and two legs.
10. Next, we’ll attach the arms and the legs to the torso and hips. We’ll do this using the same tape-on-tape method that we used in step six, making sure to leave a small gap between each limb and the body. Make sure that as you’re connecting them, the knees and elbows bend in the correct direction.
11. Attach the feet you created by laying each foot end-to-end with the bottom of the leg and laying a piece of tape gently across both tubes. Then bend the foot back so it’s parallel to the leg and lay another piece of tape across the other side of the tubes. The two pieces of tape should connect at the point of the puppet’s ankle, creating a joint. 
12. Finally, add the last four craft sticks as your rods. Tape one to each foot, so half the stick protrudes behind the foot, and one to each forearm, so half the stick protrudes behind the elbow. 
13. Now we can practice moving our puppet! Hold the stick behind the head with one hand and with the other hand hold either the foot or the arm to make your puppet walk or pick things up. Or if you have friends with you, one friend can operate the feet and another friend can operate one arm, while you operate the head and other arm. Then your puppet can walk, pick things up, or dance all at once!

In this video, Julie teaches us to create a tabletop rod puppet using newspaper and a few other basic supplies. She also shows us how to bring the puppet to life by manipulating it using the “rods,” or craft sticks. If you want to go even further, think about these questions: 

• Julie shows us how to make our puppets walk, pick up objects, and dance. What else can you make your puppet do? Can it kick an object? Can it take a bow? Can it jump?
• How can you use movement to show your puppet’s emotions? How could you use its body to show that it is surprised, or angry, or excited?
• What story could you tell with your puppet? Come up with a basic story, either an existing one or one you invent yourself, and act it out with your puppet.
• Can you design an environment for your puppet? Think about who your puppet is. What kinds of things are in its home? What objects might it have that it can pick up and interact with?

Accessibility

Don’t forget that you can turn on “Closed Captioning” to view the YouTube video with English captions.

More about the Teaching Artist

Julie Dansby Scarborough (she/her) is a professional puppeteer who has performed at many places, including the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia, and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. She has taught puppetry and drama in Orange County Public Schools and at national puppet conferences and festivals. She has mainly taught middle school and adult students, focusing on puppet manipulation. As a teaching artist, she hopes to spread the joy of puppetry and its many uses as a dramatic medium. 

Kennedy Center Education Digital Learning

Eric Friedman 
Director, Digital Learning

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Manager, Digital Education Resources

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Manager, Operations and Audience Engagement

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Content Specialist, Digital Learning

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