We get excited, here in Phoenix, any time we get to use materials we find laying around the house and turn them into something spectacular! Such was the case during our Summer Kids Event when we used brown paper lunch sacks and animal templates to create personalized arm puppets. We had plenty of animals to choose from to create: pandas, pigs, cows, frogs, owls and much more.

Everyone took their time choosing the right colors for their animal and creating designs, fur and spots on them. Parents lent their cutting expertise to the younger kids while the older ones carefully cut out arms, wings, legs, hooves, paws and heads on their own. After using our glue sticks to secure the animals body parts onto your lunch sacks we applied our favorite final touches which included furry feathers for our owls and googly eyes for all the animals to give them that crazy eyed look that all the kids loved!

When all the puppets were complete, we went around and named them, the special ones got named the same as their owners and we all introduced our new friends who included: Lionel the Lion, Ethan the Lion, Percy the Panda, Grrrr and Roar the Lion (brothers, of course!) and Miss Mousy to name a few. Check out more photos of the puppets on our Flickr page.

We had a jungle of a time creating our puppet pals. So next time you finish your lunch, don’t throw that paper lunch bag away! Save them for just one week and you’ll have enough bags to create an entire entourage of puppets that can put one of the most original and creative puppet shows you’ve ever seen. Thanks to our summer kids for joining us once again and we’ll see you next week when the Animal Welfare League will come out to share with the us the joys of dogs and how to treat them properly.