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Teaching artist Sam Jay Gold demonstrates how to create a rod puppet using a common object in your home and a few craft supplies.

Vocabulary You Will Learn:

• Rod Puppet - Puppets manipulated with stiff rods

Materials You Will Need:

• An object that is small enough to hold in one hand, but large enough to stand out as a puppet body and hand
• A piece of paper
• Two pencils
• A pair of scissors
• Tape
• A writing utensil

How to Create Your Own Rod Puppet Using a Household Object

1. First, find an object that  is small enough to hold in one hand, but large enough to become the body and head of a puppet. Then gather together the rest of the items on the materials list.
2. Now, we’re going to start creating our rod puppet using the materials we’ve gathered. Fold the piece of paper in half the long way. Draw your puppets hands and arms on the page, taking up all the space on the paper to make the arms nice and long. Then cut them out. 
3. Decide where on your object you’d like the puppet’s arms to be and then tape them on. You can use multiple pieces of tape to ensure it’s securely fastened. 
4. Next, tape down the pencils, with the pointy end of the pencil attached to the center of the puppet’s hands. 
5. Now it’s time to learn how to operate our puppet! Hold the body of the puppet and one of its arms in the same hand. Hold the other arm in your other hand and practice moving it around, making your puppet wave, scratch its head, and gesture. You can also try holding the opposite arm - the one in the same hand as the puppet’s body - with just a finger or two, so that the puppet can use both arms to clap or dance. 

6. Next, let’s practice swapping the puppet’s body from hand to hand, so that you can alternate which arm of the puppet is able to move freely. Try bringing one hand close to the puppet’s body and moving the body to your other hand. Repeat this a few times. To see Sam do this, scroll to around 7:15 in the video. 
7. Let’s try one more way to operate the puppet. Hold both of the pencils in one hand and the puppet’s body in the other, keeping your hands and arms very loose and relaxed.  This is a good way to operate the puppet if you want it to run, dance, or reach out. To see Sam do this, scroll to around 8:15 in the video.
8. Finally, we’re going to practice a sequence that involves the different ways of operating the puppet that we’ve tried. Have your puppet run, holding the two pencils in one hand and the body in the other. Then move one pencil into your other hand and have your puppet wave. Move the pencil back into the other hand, and make your puppet dance. Then move the pencil back to the other hand again, have your puppet wipe the sweat off its brow, and make them run off!

In this video, Sam demonstrates how to create and operate a puppet, using a household object and a few craft supplies. If you want to go even further, think about these questions: 

• Think about who your puppet is as you create it and begin to move it around. What is its name? Where does it live? Who are its family and friends? What is it afraid of? What does it want? 
• At the end of the video, Sam suggests thinking about how your puppet moves as you operate it. Does it move heavily with stomping steps or lightly? Does it move quickly or slowly? Does it use big gestures or lots of little ones? All these choices communicate who your character is!
• Can you create your own scene involving your puppet? Maybe you can take it through the routine of getting ready for the day or traveling to work or school. You could even create a second puppet for it to interact with! 
• Can you create an environment for your puppet to perform a scene in? What objects can you find around your home to create your puppet’s home, its workspace, or its classroom?

Accessibility

Don't forget that you can turn on "Closed Captioning" to view the YouTube video with English captions.

More about the Teaching Artist

Sam Jay Gold is a puppeteer and theater artist based in Brooklyn, New York. His work has been supported by the Jim Henson Foundation and featured in venues ranging from the Lincoln Center to neighborhood stages in Indonesia. Sam believes that arts education is life preparation. He teaches throughout New York City with an emphasis on neurodiverse spaces, aiming to offer students a creative outlet to re-discover what’s possible in the world, in their communities, and within their own lives. Learn more about his work at . 

Kennedy Center Education Digital Learning

Eric Friedman 
Director, Digital Learning

Kenny Neal 
Manager, Digital Education Resources

Tiffany A. Bryant 
Manager, Operations and Audience Engagement

JoDee Scissors 
Content Specialist, Digital Learning

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