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This lesson plan is from my summer arts camp program "Puppet Making" for elementary students. It incorporates creative arts and language arts.

Children love making puppets and creating stories to act out scenes. The grosser or scarier the monsters are, the kids become more involved. This is a project for both boys and girls. There are girl monsters, too, you know.

Before you get started, gather up all your supplies. These monster puppets can be as simple or elaborate as you wish. Your supplies are your only limitation. Here is a list of materials we used in my class:

1. paper bags of different colors: brown, white, blue, green, red

2. scissors: safety scissors, scrapbooking scissors with different edges

3. white glue, glue sticks, tacky glue (for gluing fabric), and tape

4. construction paper

5. wallpaper scraps

6. felt

7. fabric scraps

8. markers

9. crayons

10. yarn (for hair)

11. pipe cleaners (for antennae)

12. googly eyes

13. buttons

14. popsicle sticks (for arms)

15. glitter

16. stickers

Use white paper to demonstrate drawing your monster first. Draw different types of monsters and sketch ideas for your monsters. Explain to the kids that these sketches are used for creating the puppet.

Once you have your sketch colored and finished, choose the appropriate colored paper bag for your monster. If you only have brown and you want a purple monster, don't worry, we can cover it completely.

Put your hand in the paper bag and find the place where the "mouth" is. Explain that this mouth has to remain open and to be careful not to glue it shut. Also tell the kids that this is the front of the monster.

Based on the head shape of your monster, use colored construction paper to cut out the head shape or hair shape and lay it aside. This will be glued onto the top back of the paper bag. If your child decides to use felt, it will fall limp. You can support the felt or fabric with construction paper or cardboard behind it.

Next, work on the face. Cut out the face shape and glue on to the flap of the paper bag where your fingers go. It's okay if it overlaps the paper bag. I found that bigger head shapes, hair pieces, and faces made for a very creative looking and cool looking puppet.

Continue working on the face, adding googly eyes, or eyes cut from paper, a nose, and ears. Allow the kids to be as creative as they want. Since these are monsters, the body parts don't have to look realistic.

Inside the mouth is a little more difficult and adult supervision may be needed to keep the mouth from gluing

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