Puppets!

My fourth graders have been busy making paper puppets:

Totally made of paper, the mouth opens and closes with the pull of a string.  To begin, we use one piece of 12 x 12" paper to fold a German bell.  Here is a video where I realize how chubby my hands are explaining the folding process:

The folding typically takes one class period.  The next time they come to art, each student gets a 6 x 12" piece of paper that matches the color of their puppet (peach, tan, light or dark brown) and a glue to make their stick.  Here's another chubby hand video explaining the rest of the logistics of puppet making:

I did bust out the shiny paper from the remnants box (if you've never ordered a remnants box, you totally should!) and the "fun" scissors.  
We'd been studying our regional artists and talked about how they painted everyday sort of people.  We've done so much drawing a painting this year, that a nice cut paper project was enthusiastically embraced.
Here are some not-quite-finished student puppets:

 Maybe there's just enough time for a fabulous end of the year puppet show?