As Christmas approaches, you will want to find things to do with the kids which do not cost a fortune. Making fun items out of cardboard boxes can be one way of spending your Boxing Day, having spent most of Christmas Day opening the presents. If the weather is inclement you may not want to go out, and spend the day indoors with the family thinking of ways to recycle the cardboard boxes. A puppet theatre is a great way to amuse the children, and after building the stage, can have more fun creating costumes and having plays on the stage.
To make the puppet theatre, you will need a large cardboard box which is big enough for the children to stand behind to operate the puppets. This could be a large removal box or robust storage box. It must be sturdy enough to withstand rough handling and strong enough to support the curtains and curtain rod as well as being absorbent enough to be painted. You will need items such as wood screws eyes, liquid containers filled with rocks or sand to stabilise the stage and secure it on the floor, a dowel rod, shoe laces, pencil, box cutter, paint brushes, a yard stick and scissors.
Start by cutting the bottom and top of the cardboard box using the box cutter. Measure the centre of the back of the cardboard box and draw a line from top to bottom of the box. To make sure that any text on written on the box is on the inside, cut along the line and turn it inside out. The clean side of the cardboard box will then be facing the audience. To make the stage the correct size, you can measure your TV screen. The bottom of your stage opening should be three feet from the floor. You will be making some cuts in the cardboard box so make sure that you lay the box down on a surface which will not be damaged. With the clean side of the cardboard facing upwards, mark the bottom screen height in the front panel and the screen size above that and along the front of the cardboard box. The stage opening should be two feet above the mark and five feet from the floor. Make the necessary measurements and cuts, then stand the stage back up and fold back the two back panels inwards. The natural folds on the front of the cardboard box will be used to bend the two side panels back to the wall panels. Make holes in the cardboard to and use the shoe laces to fix the side panels to the back wall panels, further stabilising the box. You now have the framework of your puppet theatre, and you can make embellishments with curtains and painting in a theme of your choice.
Making things from cardboard boxes can be fun, and your puppet theatre can provide hours of amusement for the kids. They can be creative when making puppets to play in the theatre and even write their own plays for acting out for your enjoyment. Children often prefer to play with the cardboard boxes the toys came in, rather than the toys themselves, and making a puppet theatre is a great way to recycle your old removal boxes while spending some quality time with the kids.
