Theater from a cardboard box. Home theater: having fun and developing How to make a stage with your own hands out of a box

The ability to display one's creativity for the entertainment of young viewers is not given to everyone. Along with acting, skills in designing the stage and characters in the play are also valued. How nice it would be to entertain children in their usual environment with a little theatrical magic. And the most valuable thing will be creating not only your own script, but also decorating a puppet theater for it with your own hands.

Materials for creation

The foundation of a puppet theater is the stage on which all the action will take place. The stage and screen can be made in several ways. The simplest scene is made of fabric. A large piece of fabric is hung over the doorway, a horizontal slit is made in the fabric, through which the dolls will peek out during the performance.

It's also easy to build a stage using chairs or stools. Two chairs are placed with their backs apart, the seats are hung to the floor with fabric, and along the far edges of the backs there is fabric stretched with a string or elastic band - the back part of the stage, from under which the dolls will peek out. This design consists of stools as follows: three stools in a row, two on the sides of this row. The fabric is laid in the same way.

A cardboard scene is made using boxes. You can either glue it together from several boxes, or make it from one. Several boxes suggest laying out of them, like bricks, a full-fledged theater frame with a window, which is later covered with fabric and curtains. One large box should be stripped of its folding parts and two walls to create a piece of cardboard with U-shaped folds. A rectangular hole should be made in the bottom of the box, and the remaining walls should be secured in an angular position so that the box can stand by folding and gluing small square cylinders at the folds, which will prevent the box from folding. Such a scene can be easily decorated with colored paper or wallpaper.

A puppet theater for kindergarten requires a more decent appearance, so it is best to make it from plywood.

Plywood stage

To create this type of screen puppet stage, you will need some skill with a saw and tapping screws.

In general, the following materials and tools are needed:

• plywood or two sheets measuring 750x500 cm and 500x400 cm, or one sheet measuring 750x900 cm;
• small saw;
• 4 hinges for the doors, the corresponding number of screws for them, a screwdriver or screwdriver;
• a hammer and several nails;
• fabric, elastic or lace, needle and thread.

The plywood must be laid out and sawn into the parts shown in the diagram:

If necessary, parts can be painted or wallpapered. After this, they need to be assembled by connecting them with hinges for the doors. We make two rectangular pieces of fabric the size of the window, from which we attach the curtain with an elastic band or cord and sew it around it. We nail the edges of the rope onto the screen with nails and a hammer. The screen is ready.

Characters for the theater

Paper dolls are most often used in finger puppet theater or attached to skewers. Little bodies for the finger theater are made from pieces of paper glued into cones, and flat puppets from applique on cardboard are attached to skewers. The following are templates for paper characters of the fairy tale “Teremok”:

For a performance with the characters of the cartoon “Smeshariki” in a puppet theater, homemade disks are suitable. For one smesharik you need a disk, a plastic stopper for sweet water, plasticine, a skewer, a template, felt-tip pens or pencils, and glue. The character templates are shown below:

If it is not possible to print on a color printer, you will need to color the templates. Next, you should glue them onto a disk, which is seated in a special cut on top of the cork, inside of which plasticine is placed. A skewer is attached to this cork from below, and the doll is ready.

You should pay attention to the fact that it is better to glue individual parts of the templates, such as ears, horns, tails, onto cardboard, and only then onto the disk.

Dolls can also be made from fabric, without even resorting to cutting out their parts. For sock dolls, it is better to choose bright, unnecessary socks made of thick fabric. You will also need two cotton balls, thin gauze or bandage, two black beads or buttons, a bubo of knitting thread, an oval piece of fabric, needles and thread.

We wrap cotton balls in gauze, twist them at the end and tie them with a knot or thread. On them, on the side opposite to the knot, we sew buttons. This will create the eyes for the doll. We cut the end of the sock along the seam, where, inverted, we sew a round piece of fabric. This is how the doll's body and mouth are formed. Above the mouth we sew the eyes, the nodules of which are covered with a sewn bubo, which plays the role of hair. You can also add other decorative elements.

Glove actors - a transition to a more professional theater. For such a doll you need a pair of gloves, scissors, buttons, a bubo or a fluffy pompom, threads with a needle in the color of the gloves, embroidery threads or other threads that contrast with the color of the gloves, cotton wool or other printed material. A glove doll in the shape of a hare is very common. We make a head from one glove, cutting off such “fingers” as the little finger, ring finger and thumb. The remaining ones will be ears. We form the part round, sew it inside out, and then stuff it with cotton wool. In the second glove, we leave the little finger and thumb on the outside, and thread the other three into the head piece and sew them together. After this, we sew on the hare’s eyes, a forelock from a bubo, embroider the mouth, and you should get a doll, as in the photo:

Video on the topic of the article

Video on creating elements of a puppet theater:

Even in times of technological breakthrough, when many children are addicted to electronic games, interest in puppet theater does not disappear. This cute and funny activity is interesting for both young children of preschool age and schoolchildren. After all, dolls are interesting characters who can tell various fables, fascinating stories and fairy tales. And this really attracts the attention of children. The so-called merry nativity scene is always in fashion.

What is a puppet theater for?

Such a simple play set is often used for the intellectual development of young children, and is also used to organize useful leisure time for the child at home. This is a hobby that allows children’s imagination as such to unfold and determine the facets of their creative abilities.

To organize interesting entertainment at home, you don’t need to run to the store and look for something similar. Make a puppet theater especially if you apply all the examples below.

What tools and materials are needed for creativity?

To make a home puppet theater with your own hands, you will need small and large scissors (separately for paper and fabric), craft material such as multi-colored foamiran, threads, a needle, a sewing machine, a glue gun, utility tools in the form of pipe cleaners, scraps of thick plain multi-colored material, empty cardboard boxes of various sizes, plastic pipes and corners for connections, a pencil or marker for drawing patterns, a ruler, a set of multi-colored paper sheets of various densities. This, in general, is the entire elementary set that may be needed in order to complete the samples given here.

If you still think that making a children's puppet theater with your own hands is difficult, proceed to further study the material in this article, and you will understand that the task for parents cannot be simpler. It turns out that we miss a lot of things in life, and when the child grows up, we find great ideas that could be very useful in the upbringing and development of the baby in the first years of life.

It is better to do homework together; it is interesting not only for the child, but also for the parents; it is especially fun and exciting to use the result after fruitful work. Fantasy helps to create a wide variety of characters.

Puppet theater screen project

Work on making the game set begins with designing the base. The so-called screen can be made in several ways. The simplest ones are shown in the photo below.

You can make such an original tabletop puppet theater with your own hands if you use plastic pipes, ordinary shoe boxes, or sew an original folding book from thick foamiran.

A sewn mini-curtain, which can easily be held on a glazing bead and attached to the door with Velcro, can also serve as a screen for a creative play set.

These very simple ideas will help you acquire such an amazingly interesting and useful game for children as a puppet theater. It is simple to do, but it will serve not only as a basis, but also as a decoration, so for its implementation, dense, beautiful material is taken - crimplene, velvet, velor.

Dolls made of cardboard and colored paper

After making the screen, they proceed directly to creating the characters themselves. These could be animals or fables. These are the types of samples that can fill your puppet theater.

With your own hands, patterns of this type can be easily cut out of cardboard with scissors. They are decorated with applique pasting of colored paper, suede and drawing with felt-tip pens or markers.

Two circles at the bottom of the figure are cut out to create a convenient hole for fingers to hold the character like scissors. Such dolls are very practical if they are made of thick cardboard.

Theatrical characters from foamiran

You can create amazingly interesting crafts for children using the simplest materials at hand. If you are serious about making a puppet theater with your own hands, the plans offered here will help you bring your ideas to life.

These cute little animals can be sewn from any dense material, as well as from plastic suede - foamiran.

You can make a very cute puppet theater with your own hands; patterns of samples are sewn according to the size of your palm. Here the mitt method is followed, reminiscent of kitchen mitts, which are simply easy to make even for a beginner in this matter. The characters have no legs, only upper paws that are controlled by the little finger. It is more convenient to use such dolls in the screen of the first type - made of plastic pipes.

The photo shows a version of appliqué patterns that can be sewn by hand, on a machine, or glued. Of course, the safer option is one that is stitched with thread. Below is a sample of a lion cub made from individual parts, as well as another applique idea.

Sew a puppet theater with your own hands - get a lot of positive emotions and please your little household members. These types of nativity scene characters will be a joy for kids when they first meet the animal world.

Crochet dolls

There are a lot of options for creating a game set. You can not only sew a puppet theater with your own hands, but also knit it from beautiful multi-colored threads. An example can be taken from such an uncomplicated simple sample.

Moreover, you can knit not only finger characters, but also mittens. You can also crochet the patterns of the parts given above, and then sew them together.

Nativity play set

You can make such a puppet theater with your own hands. The dolls here are made according to miniature patterns of fingertips.

In the second sample, an ideally thin drape is suitable for this appliqué suture method. Regular beads were used to decorate the faces. Neat products are obtained by sewing the parts together on a machine.

But the first option is manual work. And it looks good too.

Origami and an interesting nativity scene

A fun activity is to make a puppet theater with your own hands. Dolls can be varied; they can be made from ordinary colored paper using the origami method. This interesting example of characters can be made using the diagram below.

Following the order of folding the sheet, you can create a simple face of any animal character; it can be completed with a ballpoint pen, paints, felt-tip pens or markers.

We greatly underestimate the various elements of everyday life, which, it turns out, make a magnificent puppet theater. The screen is made with your own hands from plastic pipes, who would have thought! But puppet characters can be made from brushes for cleaning them. It turns out to be such a cheerful example of miniature fairy-tale heroes.

The brush is screwed onto the finger of the one who will control the dolls, after which ears and handles are formed, a muzzle from a prepared cotton pompom is glued, as well as eyes, which can be factory-made blanks or ordinary beads.

Fascinating spiral dolls will delight any child. Such toys are certainly not sold in the store.

So, anyone can make a do-it-yourself puppet theater, patterns and descriptions of samples of which are given in this article. The main thing is to have a desire to develop creative inclinations in your children and not to miss very valuable time in upbringing - preschool age, when the child requires special attention.

Children constantly need a cheerful fairy-tale atmosphere. They learn certain behavior from the heroes of fairy tales. The richer the puppet theater repertoire, the better. So you shouldn’t dwell on the creativity of animals alone.

In order for the puppet theater to last as long as possible, in its manufacture it is worth using only new materials - paper, fabric, scraps of foamiran. Such a play set must be stored separately from all children's toys to prevent it from being damaged. After all, the decor of the screen and many of the details on the dolls themselves require special care.

Ready-made theater sets are used for role-playing games, in which the entire character of the baby is revealed. He must be directly involved in voicing a character. After all, a passive viewer is not for children. Therefore, when making a puppet theater, always listen to the wishes of the child.

Unusually simple ideas can bring comfort, fun and excitement to your home. Often the whole friendly family gathers at the puppet theater, especially on holiday weekends. So use the collected material and improve it at your own discretion. All the ideas proposed here do not require unaffordable financial costs or a large amount of free time for their implementation. In just a couple of hours you can create a theater screen and several elegant and cute finger puppets.

A puppet theater is not a ready-made toy; you need to work hard to create it, and to discover all its secrets it’s worth a little effort and imagination.

If you don’t know how to captivate a child today in an era of many modern toys that, for the most part, are not particularly useful, immediately start creating such an original brainchild.

I offer you a very quick and simple master class on creating a screen for a puppet theater from an ordinary cardboard box. Try making it with your children. I'm sure you had an interesting and fun time. And then the children will be happy to show you some fabulous New Year's performance or act out a scene from their favorite fairy tale.

To create a screen for a puppet theater we will need:

• Cardboard box;
• Acrylic matte paints (we used red kraplak, cobalt blue, dark blue, black and metallic acrylic paint - gold leaf);
• Buttons to create a castle;
• PVA glue;
• Ruler, scissors, brushes

We take a large cardboard box, straighten it and cut off the excess surfaces. We leave the central part and two side walls to stabilize the screen.

Using a pencil we draw the theater pediment, stage and backstage. Using scissors, we cut out the contour of the screen window, pediment and the edges of the side walls, rounding them.

On the reverse side we create a three-dimensional frame for attaching decorations and the back wall. If you attach a white sheet of Whatman paper as the back wall, you can organize a shadow theater.

We paint the screen in an antique style, creating the effect of multi-layer painting. First we apply a base coat of dark blue matte acrylic paint. Then, after 15-20 minutes, when the second layer is still wet, we apply a lighter paint with chaotic strokes, ours is cobalt blue.

We wait for the paint on the front side of the screen to dry, then we turn it over and paint the back side black.

We make decorative elements from the remains of a cardboard box. We decided that our puppet theater would be decorated with the moon, stars and sun. And the side walls will close. To do this, we will make a hook lock on the back side of the screen. We cover all elements in two layers. The first is with dark blue paint, the second is “gold leaf”.

Glue the decorative elements with PVA glue. We make a lock on the back of the screen. We attach a hook to one side wall; for this we use a small button and thread. On the second there is a large button for the functioning of the lock.

A little later, when preparing the shadow performance, we attached an additional wall with stiffening ribs to the screen for stability and fastening of the scenery.

This is such a wonderful screen we made for a puppet theater made from a cardboard box!

Home puppet theater is a good way to develop a child. In particular, the project promotes the development of speech, imagination, and fine motor skills. At the same time, dolls have an excellent psychotherapeutic effect, since they can help a child cope with his fears and worries, as well as receive the attention that is sometimes so lacking. You can make a puppet theater for kindergarten with your own hands, and this applies not only to dolls, but also to screens and decorations.

Making dolls

Dolls can be made from completely different materials, including scrap materials. However, their size is not important. They can be finger-shaped, in the form of gloves or stationary figures.

Felt finger characters

Finger puppets allow you to develop your child’s fine motor skills, thinking and speech. Making miniature dolls is very simple. To do this, you need to prepare the following tools and materials:

• felt;
• threads;
• scissors;
• pattern paper;
• pencil.

You can draw the pattern for the character yourself. To do this, it is first recommended to choose a fairy tale or story that will be staged, and then carefully think through its characters. After this, you can start making characters:

When making finger puppets, you should immediately decide who will wear them. If this is a child, then the holes in the dolls should be such that the characters do not fall off during the performance.

Modeling paste

A good material for making dolls can be a special modeling paste. It can be replaced with salt dough or plasticine. The advantages of this material are that it can be used to make both finger puppets and stationary puppets. To make characters you need to prepare:

The sculpting process is quite difficult for a child, so an adult needs to be shown step by step how to make this or that figurine. At the same time, it is still worth leaving the child the opportunity to express his imagination. If a human figurine is needed for staging, you can sculpt it as follows:

1. From a piece of pasta measuring 2*3 cm you need to roll a sausage and then form it into a cylinder. His figure should resemble a matryoshka doll with a torso and head. Make a notch at the bottom of the cylinder for your finger.
2. Separately sculpt the arms that need to be attached to the body.
3. All facial features can be made using a plasticine stack or knife.
4. You can paint the character after the paste has dried and hardened.

Paper fairy tale heroes

Paper dolls are very easy to make, but they can be disposable because they tear easily during use. The size of the dolls depends on personal preference. They can be worn on a finger or the entire hand. To make a paper doll, you can cut out special templates along the contour, and then glue them in pairs so that both the back and the back sides match the characters. There is an easier way to make paper dolls:

1. You need to glue a small tube from a sheet of colored paper by twisting the sheet and gluing it along the edge. Its dimensions depend on the type of puppet theater. The doll can be worn on a finger or be stationary
2. On the resulting blanks you need to glue elements of the face and hands depending on the character.

It's better not to throw away plastic spoons

You can also make dolls from scrap materials. Plastic spoons do an excellent job of this. For such characters you need to prepare:

Additionally, you may need ready-made plastic eyes, as well as felt-tip pens or markers. After preparing all the necessary tools, you can proceed directly to making dolls. To do this you need:

1. Glue or draw eyes on the convex side of the spoon.
2. Wrap the fabric around the handle of the spoon and tie it with a ribbon to make a dress. If a male character is being made, then a bow tie can be glued at the junction of the handle and the convex part of the spoon.
3. Make hair from colored paper. To do this, cut a fringe on one side of the strip, and then glue the whole part to the convex part of the spoon.

You can also use other available materials. For example, you can make smeshariki from disks with your own hands or take ice cream sticks.

Socks will help

You can very quickly make a puppet theater out of socks with your own hands. To make such characters, you must adhere to the following instructions:

Decorations for performances

Particular attention must be paid to the decorations. The easiest way to make them is from thick cardboard. To do this, you need to draw the required element on cardboard and then cut it along the contour. Additionally, you need to glue clothespins to the decoration, which will be used to attach the decorations to the screen. It is recommended to disguise them, since the fasteners cannot spoil the appearance of the stage or attract attention to themselves. Therefore, the clothespins should be disguised as part of the decoration, for example, as a figurine of a flower or mushroom. The number of clothespins depends on the size of the decoration itself.

Theater screen

The screen is the basis of the puppet theater in kindergarten. Its appearance depends on the type of theater. This could simply be a fabric curtain that can be used to cover the hole under the table. In this case, all actions will take place at the level of the table top. You can also make a dollhouse out of fabric with your own hands, the patterns for which you can draw yourself. If you are making a finger puppet theater with your own hands or using glove puppets, then you will need a table screen. It can be made from different materials.

A plywood screen will turn out to be very light, and it will last for many years. To make it you need to prepare:

• plywood;
• jigsaw;
• wallpaper or fabric;
• door hinges.

1. Cut 3 blanks from the main material, that is, one central part and two sidewalls. They need to be covered with fabric or wallpaper.
2. After all three parts are dry, they need to be connected using door hinges. This will allow you to close the screen and fold it.

In a similar way, you can make a screen from cardboard. However, it is recommended to make it three-layer, which will significantly increase the strength of the structure. It is not necessary to connect the parts with door hinges; they can simply be sewn together.

The age of children who go to kindergarten places special demands on the action itself. For a theatrical performance, it is recommended to choose simple, uncomplicated plots that are nevertheless capable of teaching important life things. Gradually, the repertoire can be increased, while periodically returning to already staged performances. The peculiarity of children is that they quickly get tired and stop paying attention to some subject. This means that the duration of the performance should not exceed 10-15 minutes. Additionally, you can use musical accompaniment.

A puppet theater in a kindergarten will help not only to reveal the talents of each child, but also to unite the team. And not only at the stage of staging fairy tales, but also in the process of making dolls. The children will definitely be delighted and will definitely not forget the emotions they felt at these moments.

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