Elf Craft Stick Puppets

This simple elf craft stick crafting project can lead to hours of creative fun! Fantastic for a classroom project to create a display wall that tells a story. Or use in your homeschool as part of a festive story telling activity. Fantastic holiday fun for preschool and kindergarten!

Christmas Elf Craft Stick Puppets

Craft Stick Elf

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This time of year kids are bursting with excitement and energy. A great way to engage those passions is to encourage kids to perform or story tell. Story telling is a wonderful activity during the holidays that goes back centuries in many cultures. We do it through plays, written stories, visual displays, and with new technologies with short films like stop motion animation.

In this activity we put kids crafting skills to work first so they can create some cute Elf Puppets for their stories.

Craft Stick Elves Supplies

Regular size craft sticks
Mini craft sticks
Red acrylic paint
Cardstock – brown, red, white
Markers – dark brown, red, pink
Googly eyes, small
Glue stick
Scissors

Directions

Start off by tracing out the elements of your design. You will want a face (give your elf personality!), hat, mittens, boots, etc. Trace them onto coloured paper and cut them out.

Time to build the body! Glue 5 regular sized craft sticks to a square piece of paper. Trim the paper to fit.

Select 4 mini craft sticks, or you can cut regular craft sticks in half.

Paint all the craft sticks, including the ones glued to the paper, red. Let dry.

While the paint is drying, use the markers to draw some hair, a simple mouth, and rosy cheeks on the brown circle. Glue on the googly eyes.

Glue the triangle hat to the top of the circle, then add the brim and glue the head to the collar. Now, glue it all to the top of the regular craft sticks.

Glue the arms and legs in place. Take a moment before securing these to decide what position you want your elf to be in. This important as part of your story telling!

Finally, glue the mittens onto the end of 2 of the mini sticks. Your elf is done and ready to tell a story!

Elf Story Time

This is my favourite part of this type of project, story creation time!

There are lots of different ways you could use these craft stick elf puppets to tell a story.

First you need to decide if the children will be recreating a favourite story, or writing their own new story. Once you have your story, it’s time to get creative! We have lots of ideas on how kids can innovatively share their stories. Use these ideas to inspire your projects.

Create a Story Board

If you are in a classroom, use a display board to create a story by placing your elves in a visual scene. Use word bubbles or letters to help convey the story. Have the kids help bring the scene to life by creating additional items as needed, such as a sleigh, or a workshop.

Put on a Puppet Show

Have the kids put on a puppet show and tell their story.

Stop Motion

Use a camera, tablet or phone and a simple stop motion app to create a stop motion movie telling the story. Learn how to make a Stop Motion Animation with our simple tutorial.

Write a Story

Have your kids write a story. Print it out, then use card stock to create a cover for the story. Glue the puppets on the cover, then have kids draw the rest of their story cover.

Most of all, have fun this holiday season sharing stories and connecting.

Craft Stick Elf Puppets

More Holiday Fun

Holiday Traditions for Families from Around the World
Christmas Games for Kids
24 Days of Christmas STEM Activities - Secular Holiday STEM Projects