Sea Animals Shoebox Puppet Theatre

This is a surprisingly simple and fun DIY project for sea animal fans. There are whales, dolphins and turtles!  Great for a school projects, show and tell, a themed holiday activity or just for fun!  Here’s an idea: make a theme day and borrow a sea animal book from the local library, watch a documentary, set up an ocean themed play scene and make a puppet theatre! Something the entire family could enjoy.

Materials

Base of a shoebox (or use a cereal box)

Paddle pop sticks (or fishing line for diorama option)

Glue (clear craft glue or other paper glue works well)

Sea Animal Printable/Background (click the respective pictures below for either outline (to colour) or the coloured version PDF files.

 

 

Instructions

1. Print out the templates.

2. Cut around animals, the wave graphic and the blue background.

3. Glue the background into the back of the box.

4. Fold the wave graphic about 1cm from the bottom.

5.  Glue the folded part of the wave under the box so it sits up like this.

7. To make a puppet theatre, glue a paddle pop stick on the back of the animal cut outs.  To make this a diorama, sticky tape a length of fishing line to the back of the animal cut outs. Tip: Printing the animals on card works best (but not essential).

6.  To use the box as a puppet theatre, cut a rough rectangle section on the base of the box. This allows a space for the paddle pop puppets to enter the theatre.

Puppet Theatre

Great for show and tell at school, story telling, science projects and just for fun!

Diorama

This looks so cool because it’s 3D and the sea animals seem to hover in the air.  It’s a fun decoration for sea-loving-child’s bedroom too! Simply sticky tape the fishing line to the inside top of the box where you want the animals to sit.

Paddle Pop Stick Puppets

Another simple way to play with the printables is to simply make paddle pop stick puppets to play with.

Colouring Pages

Or just colouring them in.  For individual colouring pages of the mother/baby animals, click the picture below for 6 pages of options.