How to Make a Shoebox Puppet Theatre with Colorful Mermaids
Make this cute shoebox puppet theatre with rainbow mermaids inspired by the book The Rainbow Mermaids of Hawaii.
It’s so important for me to spread joy and creativity with all the projects I create for this blog, but also with the products I promote. That’s why I love collaborating with artists and illustrators. I enjoy the uniqueness and the personal touch they put in their art, it makes it more special. This time I’m partnering with Tara and Gill (“Jill”) McBarnet, the mom and daughter duo at Hawaiian Children's Books.
They sent me a wonderful copy of their book named The Rainbow Mermaids of Hawaii.
The book makes learning to count a fun experience, while the kids listen a wonderful story about the blue ocean, it’s colorful coral gardens, rainbow mermaids and sea animals.
To make the story interactive I decided to create a craft inspired by the story, and it occurred to me that a shoebox puppet theatre would be a wonderful idea!
Decorate your shoebox theater using a paper rainbow, a sun and some sea animals, etc, some of the pieces you need to create are in this image above. Check out more details about how to make them below.
MATERIALS:
Recycled shoe box
Construction paper sheets in a variety of colors
Scissors
Black pen or marker
How to Make a Shoebox Puppet Theatre with Colorful Mermaids
The first step is to cut out a rectangle in the middle of a recycled cardboard shoe box.
To decorate the shoe box, you can paint it blue to simulate the sky and add some waves and water using pieces of blue paper sheets. Instead of painting it, I covered it with blue construction paper. Using paper instead of paint was easier for me, but you have these two options, use whatever works better for you and your kids.
Make a rainbow that will peek in one of the corners of your puppet theater. First cut a few semicircles in different colors and different sizes and glue them together. You can also sketch and cut a sun and a few animals to make the cardboard puppet theatre more fun.
4. To make the mermaids, draw and cut a few mermaid tails using construction paper in different colors, just like the images above. Glue them into the clothespins. Use sequins to simulate their top and a pen or marker to draw their happy faces.
When your puppet theater is ready you can start reading and recreating the fun story of “The Rainbow Mermaids of Hawaii” and count all the mermaids together with your kid.
Put the cute mermaids, one by one in the scenario as soon as they appeared in the story What a great way to make counting interactive for the little ones!