Flip the puppet back and forth to reveal a simple, dynamic story! This project was part of our library’s World Kamishibai Day performance. Called tachi-e (“standing pictures”), the puppets originate from 19th century Japan.
You’ll need:
- 2 rectangles of white paper
- 2 rectangles of black poster board
- 1 pair of new, intact chopsticks
- Scissors and glue for construction
- Markers, pens, and color pencils for decorating
- Hot glue
A tachi-e puppet is two sided. The first side is the puppet at rest, then quickly flip it to create a change. This Japanese lantern ghost was designed by artist Tara McGowan:
It’s way cooler to see the puppet in action though…
First, draw a 2-step sequential scene on 2 separate rectangles of white paper. Cut each drawing out, then glue each on a rectangle of black poster board (our rectangles were 5.5″ x 8.5″). Hot glue a pair of new, intact chopsticks to the back of the first poster board rectangle, then hot glue the second poster board rectangle on top of it. Twirl the stick to operate the puppet!
The kids had some great idea for puppets. I managed to snap a couple. A hatching chick…
A budding tree (with squirrels running up the trunk!)…
A very sweet butterfly…
A single fish that goes “Pop!” and turns into a school of fish…
An exploding firework…
And a girl that duplicates into 5 girls!
If that last one seems a little confusing, it was inspired by a kamishibai performance of Manmaru manma tantakatan (written by Fumiko Araki, and illustrated by Takuya Kusumi). It’s about a ninja boy who duplicates himself to foil a wicked serpent.
From Amazon
It’s a big world out there. A world with lots of things in it. And those things need HUGS. The question is…are you up to the task? Are you a Hug Machine?
OK, you’re ready to start hugging – and by hugging we mean go forth and find things to wrap your poster board hug around! You can just use the paper hug, or get right in there and use your arms too. Always dedicated to seeing a project through, Katie and I hit the streets on a rainy afternoon to share the love with Princeton.
A mailbox clearly in need of a hug.
Hugging a roaster and barista pal at our awesome local coffee shop, Small World.
A hug for 
Hugging a rainbow narwhal at JaZams, our stupendous local toy store.
No park bench escapes me…
Nor jungle-like foliage…
An attempted hug of one of Princeton’s famous black squirrels…yeah, no go.
Finally, a hug from a random person who totally rocked the love. Awwwww!
Decorate it with markers, and don’t forget to write the name of your band inside the circle of the bass drum! When you’re done coloring, flip the drum set template over:
Roll the lower drums inwards, and tape them to the back of the set.
Next, fold the tabs downward along the dotted lines. These are your drum heads. Use scissors to shape them to the tops of your drums, then secure them with tape.
Repeat the same process with the upper drums.
Now fold the long base of the drum set upwards, tucking the cymbal stands between the lower and upper drums.
Turn the set around, and stick small 
Use scrap paper from your template to fashion a pair of drum sticks and finger loops. Tape the sticks to the finger loops, and slide them over your fingers.
Finally, your buffalo drummer! Cut and color the buffalo finger puppet from the template (or use the full color version