Dancing Dickeybird Puppet

By Geoffrey D. Hemming

To make dancing dickeybird puppet, you will need: white cardboard; crayons; sharp pencil; scissors; four 6″ (15 cm), two 10″ (25 cm), and one 9″ (23 cm) piece of thread the same color as your bird.

1. Trace bird’s body, wings, and legs onto cardboard. Color and cut out.

2. With pencil point, carefully make five small holes in body, two in each wing, and one in each leg (see illustration.)

3. Double all thread for extra strength. Use 6″ (15 cm) pieces to loosely tie wings and legs to body.

4. Cut 8″ x 1/2″ (20 cm x 1.5 cm) strip of cardboard, and notch in middle and 1″ (2.5 cm) from each end.

5. Tie doubled 10″ (25 cm) threads to wings and to ends of cardboard strip; tie remaining doubled thread to head and to middle of cardboard strip (see illustration.)

6. Hold strip in one hand and shake it gently. Dickeybird puppet will flap its wings and kick its legs as if it were dancing.