If your children love arts and crafts as well as prehistoric beasts, why not combine the two by making some incredible homemade dinosaur puppets. This is a great way to teach children about dinosaurs and will help keep little minds busy during those dull winter days. Here are five dinosaur puppet ideas to get you started. 

1. Socks and Felt 

If you have some old socks lying around, don’t throw them in the bin. Instead, give them a quick wash, let them dry and then decorate the sock with felt so that it looks like a dinosaur - think spikes, a tail and some googly eyes. You can stitch the felt pieces on or use a glue-gun. Adult supervision is advised. Pop your hand inside to bring the dinosaur to life. 
 

2. Toilet Roll Tube and Cardboard 

Recycling is the way to go when it comes to arts and crafts. So save those old loo roll tubes and any leftover egg or cereal boxes and put them to good use. Essentially this craft is all about using cardboard to make a dinosaur shape. You can then paint your dinosaur and use craft pins to attach moveable arms and legs. 

3. Stick Puppets 

Leftover lolly sticks are great for arts and crafts, so hold onto them when you can. Trace a dinosaur onto cardboard, cut out and decorate using coloured felt and eyes. Attach your creation to two lolly sticks using a glue gun. This sort of puppet is great to use with a puppet show set as you can keep the sticks out of sight behind the stage and only the puppet will show. 

4. Balloon Puppet 

Blow up a balloon of your choice and tie a knot. Decorate the balloon in whatever way you choose to look like your favourite dinosaur. You can then hold the balloon from the knot and wave it around so it looks like a living, breathing and real-life dino. As balloons come in all different shapes, sizes and colours, you can make a whole dinosaur family if you’re in the mood or play around with different dinosaur species. 

5. Egg Carton Dinosaur 

Another great way to make a dinosaur puppet from an egg carton is to take a 12-slot carton and cut one or two sections for the dinosaur’s body. Paint each section to make it really stand out and decorate with stripes, spots, scales and more. Cut the head out of another section of the egg box and glue to the top of your structure. Add some googly eyes. You can also make a tail out of pipe cleaners. Attach sticks or lolly sticks to the bottom to complete your puppet.

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