Shadow Puppets!! (Dragons)

I have taught this lesson three times, and this is, by far, my favorite lesson to teach! Shadow puppets are very diverse and can be taught using many different subjects. For this particular lesson I focused on Cambodian shadow puppets and traditions. I taught the most recent lesson as a double-lesson. I taught one lesson on black opaque dragon puppets and another lesson on see-through puppets (seen in the next post). This lesson is highly engaging to students imagination and they were learning about other cultures while having fun!

Visual Arts Standards: 
25.A.2d
26.B.2d
26.B.2b

Objectives: 
Students will be able to identify the expressive qualities of symbol and story when creating a shadow puppet show for their dragons.
Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of designing, sketching, and constructing their shadow puppet using pre-determined tools.
Students will be able to create a movable 2-dimensional dragon puppet.

Materials: 
Black Cardstock or Construction Paper
Hot Glue
Brads
Bamboo Skewers
Colored Pencil
Pencils
Erasers
Scissors

Step 1: This dragon needs to be drawn in 3 parts to make it movable. I started with drawing the head on a small piece of construction paper. This shape will be the head and the neck. I encouraged the students to add spikes and teeth and whiskers, whatever they wanted their dragon to have!

Step 2: To cut out this piece can be tricky if there are a lot of small spikes or details. Most of my students were able to cut theirs out with little to no assistance. To cut out the holes for the eyes they could fold it and cut a small half circle or color it in with white colored pencil.

Step 3: Using the width of the neck on the first piece as a guide, create the torso for the dragon. This can be the shape of an eggplant. As it gets nearer to the tail it can get slightly smaller. You can continue the spikes on the head and neck onto the torso. This piece should be easier to cut out.

Step 4: Just as we used the head as a guide for the torso, we will use the torso as a guide for the tail. The tail is the shape of a tear drop, coming to a point at the end.

Step 5: Once all pieces are cut out, color with colored pencil! The darker colors do not show up as well on the black paper but you will be able to see them lightly.

Step 6: As the students were coloring, I went around and poked 4 holes with a pencil. One at the base of the neck, one at each side of the torso, and one at the beginning of the tail.

Step 7: When they are done coloring they can attach these pieces with the metal brads!

Step 8: Hot glue bamboo skewers onto the back of the head and tail pieces and give it a whirl!

These are so much fun to make and they turn out amazingly well! The students wanted to take them home the second they made them!


When they had a chance to play with them, I had them sit down and talk with their peers about what kind of story they could have for their puppet show. They decided on a story called "Once Upon A Dragon" and they created a script and scenery for their show! They had a lot of fun making these and I had a lot of fun watching their imaginations soar.