Make a Fun Paper Bag Monkey Puppet With Your Preschoolers

Letter M is for monkey preschool lesson #crafts

When planning the Letter M is for Monkey lesson for my preschool class, I was convinced I would find so much material that it would be difficult to decide what I wanted to use. Not! It was shocking to see how much WASN’T on the internet for monkeys. Really?

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Safari Buddies Hand Puppets from Melissa and Doug

So, it presented an opportunity for me to create my own. Of course, when it comes to stories, Curious George fills the bill. We borrowed a DVD from the library with a series of Curious George cartoons on it. We also read Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed! The library has a number of great picture books that tell about monkeys. But I still needed a craft!

Three puppets made by Preschoolers!

Our craft was a puppet.

This lunch-bag puppet is my creation. I found a few ideas online that I kind-of liked but the final product is original. Please feel free to use it.

Monkey Fun Facts:

Monkeys have tails – apes do not. Guess what? Chimpanzees are apes, not monkeys. I must admit, when I learned that at first I was a little sad. It was a childhood myth I need to get over LOL!

Famous Monkeys / Apes:

Cheetah – Tarzan’s chimpanzee friend
King Kong – a gorilla; King of the Apes
Dexter – a capuchin monkey featured in the movie Night at the Museum

Paper Bag Monkey Puppet

Supplies

paper lunch bags

Pattern 1
Pattern 2

Card or cover stock
glue sticks
Elmer’s glue
googly eyes*
crayons

Instructions

Print pattern 1 and 2 on card-stock.
Color the parts on page #2 before cutting the pieces out.
Cut out pieces on both pattern 1 and 2.
Using Elmer’s glue, attach the head to the foldout part of the paper bag.
Glue on the face piece with eyes and then the part with the mouth partially covering it.
Glue the arms in between the fold of each side of the bag.
Attach the hands to the arms
Glue the tail sticking out of the fold.
If you prefer googly eyes, glue them on last. There are dots for eyes right on the pattern that also look cute!