Paper Plate Elephant Puppet Tutorial

Today I want to show you my Paper Plate Elephant Puppet. This easy and engaging project allows children to transform a simple paper plate into the charming elephant puppet. It’s a wonderful way to foster creativity while helping kids to foster creativity while helping kids develop their motor skills through cutting, gluing, and decorating. Let’s dive into the crafting adventure!

Supplies needed:

Large sturdy paper plate
cup for tracing a circle (ours was 3 1/4″ diameter)
pencil
craft knife (for adult use only)
gray paint
paint brush
2 sheets of gray cardstock paper
small piece of pink paper
scissors
2 large googly eyes
adult-sized gray sock (I purchased a pair at the dollar store)
glue gun (for adult use only)

Tutorial:

1. Cut & paint paper plate

Start by using a pencil to trace a cup on the back side of the paper plate where you want the elephant trunk to be. Use a craft knife to cut the circle out. Now paint the back side of the paper plate with gray paint and let it dry completely.

2. Cut face shapes

Cut elephant ears out your gray cardstock paper and set them aside. You will also need to cut a small mouth out of your pink paper.

3. Glue a sock on plate

Once your paper is finished drying, you need to glue the gray sock to the paper plate to make the trunk a puppet. I started by stretching out the top of the sock as much as I could to help it stay down better when gluing. (Use the images below for a guide) Pull the sock through the top of the plate. Put a dab of hot glue on one section of the plate and fold the sock over and glue it down. Put a dab on the complete opposite end of the plate and fold the sock over and glue it down. (See #2 below). Now glue small sections at a time all the way around the sock until it is all glued down around the plate.

4. Finish with gluing a face

Turn the paper plate over and glue on the ears, googly eyes, and mouth. You can use school glue for this part, but if you are inpatient like us, you can use hot glue to put the pieces on so you don’t have to wait for it to dry. Now it’s time to play!