Fall is such a fun time of year and a great time for pumpkin activities! And what is more fun to go along with a pumpkin unit study than a story about a runaway pumpkin? The DIY character puppets that I will show you how to make in this post go with the children’s book Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman, and can be used in many different ways to create fun and interesting literacy or social studies activities for your homeschool or classroom. If you don’t sew, there is a no-sew option and you can even make the puppets out of construction paper or cardstock in order to make them super simple and quick.
Big Pumpkin has been one of my favorite Halloween children’s books since I was a kid. Its delightfully rhythmic storyline and fun illustrations make it perfect for preschool Halloween activities and literacy centers! It’s the adorable story of a witch who plants a seed that grows into a giant pumpkin that is so big that she needs the help of several different characters to pull her pumpkin off the vine so she can make pumpkin pie for Halloween. Doing a Big Pumpkin puppet show was one of my kids’ favorite activities this fall. The DIY puppets in this post can be used for fun Halloween literacy activities for homeschool or the classroom, to help your child (or children) retell the story of Big Pumpkin. Retelling is a great way to help children with language development, reading comprehension, and early writing skills (the thinking part of writing that comes before mechanical writing). Puppet shows are a fun way for children to practice retelling, and explore language and creativity at the same time. A Big Pumpkin puppet show will be a fun addition to your Halloween lesson plans!
These Big Pumpkin puppets are pretty easy to make – and you can either sew them or use glue to put them together if you don’t sew. The patterns and instructions for the different characters are below.
Materials Needed:
- Pumpkin seeds (at least 1)
- Black felt – 7 pieces
- White felt – 4 pieces
- Green felt – 1 piece
- Red felt – 1 piece
- Orange felt – 1 piece
- Flesh colored felt – 1 piece
- Optional – construction paper in all the colors listed above if you choose not to use felt
- Fabric paint (like Puffy Paint or Scribbles) – red, white, and black
- Hot glue for no-sew puppets or sewing machine and thread (I used white, black, and green thread to go with the different felt colors)
- Pattern pieces (below)
- Pumpkin – a real pumpkin is fun to use, or you can use a small pumpkin decoration
Instructions:
- Print and cut out all the pattern pieces
- Cut the pattern out of the felt (the colors and numbers of pieces needed are listed on or next to the pattern pieces)
- Assemble each puppet following the directions below. The witch is the main character so she comes first!
For the Witch Puppet:
- Attach (by sewing or gluing) one set of hands and one head of the witch to the back side of each body piece.
- Attach the nose to the witch’s face, leaving the end of the nose unattached (because it will need to overlap the hair)
- Attach the back of the witch to the front at the edges along the sides, arms, and head, making sure to leave the bottom edge open. If sewing, consider using green thread to sew the hands and face together and black to sew the rest of the body.
- Attach the hair to the underside of each side of the witch’s hat. The front half of the hat should have one long piece of hair and one short piece of hair on the right and the left side, leaving the middle open. The back of the hat will have hair all along the bottom edge.
- Trim off any extra felt.
- Attach the two sides of the hat together along the sides and top, leaving the bottom open.
- Use the fabric paint to make eyes and a mouth for the witch.
- Attach the hat to the witch’s head with glue or a few hand stitches.
For the Ghost Puppet:
- Attach (by sewing or gluing) the ghost’s eyes and mouth to one side of the ghost.
- Attach the front of the ghost to the back of the ghost at the edges, leaving the bottom edge open.
For the Vampire Puppet:
- Attach (by sewing or gluing) one set of hands and the face of the vampire (flesh-colored piece with ears) to the front side of the body (same pattern piece as the witch body). Attach the other set of hands to the back side of the vampire body, but DO NOT attach the head yet.
- Attach the red collar piece to the top of the back of the vampire body, as shown in the photo.
- Attach the shirt front and bow tie to the front of the vampire body.
- Attach the hair to the top of the vampire face.
- Use the red, black, and white fabric paint to give the vampire eyes, eyebrows, a mouth, and fangs Make sure the paint is dry before handling the front of the puppet again.
- Attach the back of the vampire head (the black head piece) to the back of the vampire at the neck ONLY.
- Once the face paint is dry, attach the vampire front to the vampire back by following these instructions: first, join the front of the head to the back. If sewing, bend the top of the vampire cape back to get it out of the way (see the photo below), and sew the part of the vampire head that has hair to the back of the vampire head with black thread. Then sew the rest of the front of the head to the back with white or flesh colored thread. Sew or glue the hands together at the edges, and sew or glue all around the arms and side at the edges, making sure to leave the bottom of the body open
For the Mummy Puppet:
- Attach the eyes to one side of the mummy body by sewing or gluing them on.
- Position the mummy bandages on the front of the body as you like, using the longest strips for the body, the medium strips for the head, and saving the shortest strips for the arms (which you will place and attach last. You will want to cross and overlap some of the strips.
- Once you have the strips configured in a way you like, remove the top layer of strips and set them aside. You may want to take a photo first to help you remember the placement. Attach the remaining strips to the mummy by gluing or sewing them on at the edges.
- Now replace the top layer of bandages and attach them by glueing or sewing them on. Trim off the excess by cutting the overlapping bandages off. Trim the bandages away from the arms as well.
- Now place the bandages on the arms and attach.
- Trim off any parts of the bandages that are hanging over the edges.
- Attach the front of the mummy to the back by sewing or gluing along the edges, leaving the bottom open.
For the Bat Puppet:
- Use the fabric paint to add eyes, a mouth, and fangs to the front of the bat.
- When the paint is dry, attach the front of the bat to the back by gluing or sewing around the edges, leaving the bottom open.
Your puppets are done!
Now it’s time to prepare to retell the Big Pumpkin story. The best way to prepare for retelling the story is to read it to your child or have your child read it, depending on reading ability, and then have your child narrate the story back to you. Reread the story as needed to fill in any gaps in the narration. Once your child can remember and retell the important details of the story, he or she can get creative and dramatic while putting on a puppet show!
Now it’s time to put on your Big Pumpkin puppet show! You might even enjoy some pumpkin pie afterward to go with the theme!
Extension Activity Ideas:
- Use this story as a fun end to your pumpkin unit. Be sure to finish it off with a slice of pumpkin pie!
- Incorporate sight words into your activity by using them as cue cards for retelling the story. Some ideas for sight words to use are: once, ghost, hours, thought
- A great way to involve children of different ages if you are doing homeschool family-style is to use the story to study English language arts. For younger children, you can do simple letter recognition activities and practice the sounds of the letters of the alphabet, such as identifying the letters that the characters in the story start with (W for witch, B for bat, M for Mummy, P for pumpkin, G for ghost, V for vampire). For older students, identify the parts of speech in the story, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and even adverbs.
- Use the story to study comparative adjectives and superlative adjectives. Examples of how comparative adjectives are used in the story are: the ghost was bigger; the vampire was stronger; the mummy pulled harder. You can use superlative adjectives to talk about the characters and storyline: the mummy was the biggest; the bat was the smallest; the bat was the smartest, the witch planted the biggest pumpkin, etc.
- Use comprehension questions to discuss the book. Who are the characters in the book? Who is the main character? What problem does the witch have? Who tries to help her? How does the problem get solved?
- Write a descriptive paragraph using pumpkin adjectives – get creative and imagine what that big pumpkin might have been like!
Thank you for visiting! I hope you have fun making and using your puppets for great learning activities!
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