Halloween craft
The dancing skeleton
A funny skeleton to color and put together: pull the string, up go its arms and legs, and it dances for Halloween.
The sheet to print
The five pieces of the puppet: the head and body, two arms, two legs. The circles with a cross are for the paper fasteners, the small circles for the string.
Step by step
Ages 3+45 minutes
Supplies
- The sheet, printed on thick paper — or glued onto the cardboard of a cereal box
- Colored pencils or markers
- Round-tipped scissors
- Four brass paper fasteners
- Strong thread or yarn, and a bead
Steps
- Color the five pieces: the bones can stay white as the moon, or take every color.
- Cut out the five pieces along their thick outline: the head and body, two arms, two legs. Under 4, the grown-up does the cutting.
- The grown-up pierces each circle with a cross, with the tip of a pencil and an eraser underneath, then fixes the arms and legs behind the body with the paper fasteners, not too tight.
- On the back, arms and legs hanging down, tie a thread from one arm to the other through their small circles, then another from one leg to the other.
- Tie a long thread to the middle of the arm thread, then to the leg thread, and let it hang with a bead at the end. Pull the bead: the skeleton dances.
A loop of thread through the small circle on the head, and it hangs from a door handle: every time someone walks by, they pull, and it dances.