Create spoon puppet superheroes

You’ll need

Scissors
Paint
Coloured pens or pencils
Craft materials (for example, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, stickers)
Double sided sticky tape
Glue sticks
Wool
Something to protect surfaces (for example, newspaper or tablecloths)
PVA glue
Rulers
Sticky tape
String
A4 card
Tissue paper
Pens or pencils
Wooden spoons
Paint brushes
Felt tips
Googly eyes
Pipe cleaners
Self-adhesive felt sheets
Fabric

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.

Planning and setting up this activity

You may want to set up tables, chairs and craft materials before starting the session.
You could have a selection of printouts about different inspiring people for young people to choose from and learn more about.

Running this activity

Tell everyone that today they’re making a spoon puppet of someone who has inspired them or changed the world in some way.
If you’re celebrating a special day or marking a calendar event, introduce it to everyone. You could tell people a little about it, what it is, who is celebrated and why or what they’ve done.
Go round in a circle and ask people to recognise a brilliant, inspirational person they want to make a spoon puppet of. It could be a person in their lives, in history, in fiction, a celebrity and around the world. It could be a local person, too.
If people don’t want to say who they’ve chosen, that’s OK too.
If you’ve a selection of printouts about different inspiring people, let young people have a chance to look through them.
Now, ask everyone to take a spoon and draw their design onto it in pencil. You may want to give out paper too, so people can practice drawing their design.
First, paint the handle of the wooden spoon and leave to dry. Once the paint is completely dry, write the name of the person down the handle of the spoon, using an art deco pen, permanent marker or in paint.
Everyone should then use the craft materials to create their person. They might want to give the person different features and use glue to attach the items.
Before using glue, it’s better to do any painting first, if you’re going to, and waiting for it to dry. This means the glue and paint shouldn’t mix.
If people want to make an outfit, they could cut the outfit’s shape out of a sheet of felt, fabric, card, or another material. This should be stuck on the front of the spoon. The outfit can then be re-cut out of the same fabric, and you can attach it to the back of the handle using double sided tape to a full outfit. You can also glue or stick the back of the outfit to the front of the outfit, so it wraps around the spoon.
Encourage and allow people to be as creative as possible in their designs.
Once everyone’s finished, leave the spoon puppets to dry. Once dry, you could go round in a circle and ask everyone to show who their spoon is, why they chose that person, what they did and how they inspire them.

Reflection

This activity was all about finding out about people who inspire us. Who did you create? Why did you choose that person? What did they do and how do they inspire you?

If you could say one thing to that person or meet them, what would you say? How have they impacted your life and why do you think they need to be celebrated?

We made puppets to help bring our inspiring people to life. What did you do to make your spoon? How did you think creatively to turn the spoon into the puppet?

Did you run into any difficulties and how did you resolve them? What do you think of your puppet? What did you like and is there anything you’d change or amend?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Scissors: Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.
Glue and solvents: Always supervise young people appropriately when they’re using glue and solvent products. Make sure there’s plenty of ventilation. Be aware of any medical conditions that could be affected by glue or solvent use and make adjustments as needed.