01 October 2025
Doubleview Primary School students let their imaginations run wild when making their very own no-sew puppets using nothing more than recycled materials.
The idea came from Year 5 teacher Gail Chinery, who believes creativity promotes problem solving skills.
Doubleview Primary School students made amazing puppets using recycled materials.
“I had made marionette puppets previously and wanted to do puppets again, but in a different form,” Ms Chinery said.
The class used a YouTube tutorial to learn some simple techniques for bringing the puppets to life using a hot glue gun. Students made their puppets out of old socks, pieces of fabric, buttons, bottle tops and scraps of cardboard.
The Year 5 class faced a lot of problem solving throughout the activity, learning that certain materials work better than others, how to build something they had created using their own imagination and how to safely use the hot glue gun to complete their master pieces.
“The students were so proud of their puppets,” said Ms Chinery.
“The more the puppets took shape, the more excited the students got. It was easy to keep them motivated and many of them chose to come to school early just to work on them.”
Year 5 student Gracie Perrett made a puppet called Carol and was inspired by the colour of the fabric.
“The fabric I chose immediately made me think of a snowman,” she said.
Carol was made out of fabric, upholstery foam, wire, red felt, googly eyes, gloves and buttons.
Gracie made snowman called Carol.
Gracie said she learnt not to rush or give up when things don’t work and how to cut and shape foam.
Once the puppets were finished, they were then named and given a voice and backstory to create characters full of personality.
“We had the goal of making the puppet in time for our class assembly,” Ms Chinery said.
“The students grouped themselves according to the puppet they had made and then had to write a one-minute script that would inform or entertain the audience in some way.”
The short skits based on the new characters ranged from silly comedies to clever dramas.
Gracie had a lot of fun with her skit.
“My snowman didn’t know how to have fun, then she met some polar bear friends who taught her not to be so uptight,” Gracie said.
Staff and students at the school were amazed to see how everyday materials could be transformed into something fun and imaginative.