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Bald Eagle Paper Bag Puppet Craft · USA National Symbol · Patriotic Preschool Printable Activity

Materials:

• printer
• paper or card stock
• construction paper: black or brown make the chest on the paper bag and trace wing templates.
• coloring tools for B&W template
• scissors
• glue stick
• Standard lunch paper bag,
  or attach to: large craft stick or used sock

This is one of a collection of animal paper bag puppets. Most of the puppets are assembled with 2 or 3 piece templates for children 2+ and older.

This eagle is a bit more advanced for children ages 5+ with 10 pieces plus optional Uncle Sam hat assembled with 6 pieces. The craft can be adapted for younger children by assembling parts of the craft ahead of time or dividing the activity in two periods.

Teaching Aid - Color Version:

The color version is meant for the educator (parent, preschool teacher, child care provider or baby-sitter) to use as a teaching helper. Laminate for durability.

Ideas and suggestions:

• Story time helper: The puppet can be your assistant storyteller and reader. It can bring excitement and enthusiasm into the reading time. This puppet "helper" can be one of the characters, an ask questions to the children during and after the reading. Later the children can have fun assembling their own puppet using the black and white version templates.
  
  
• Alphabet: Letter E Eagle lesson plan printable activities
  Introduce or reinforce letter recognition and early handwriting skills. You can print the upper and lower case letter on the body of the puppet.
  
  
• Introduce related and new themes: Review topics for this puppet in the themes at the top of the page. Review the bald eagle lesson plan.
  
  
• Nutrition and health | Character Education | Safety
  The puppet can be a great aid in those special times when parents need a fun helper, and give that little nudge and friendly reminder to have the children cooperate with chores, learn how to dress themselves, potty training, alleviate the anxiety related to the doctor or dentist visits, or to help introduce a new caregiver, meal times, and safety issues, etc.
  
  
• Music and Physical Activity 'Conductor'> Singing, Dancing, Marching, Finger plays > These puppets are great to get the children in the mood for music and movement.

Crafting Activity and Homemade Toy:

The black and white version allows the children to be creative and personalize the puppet. Provide a variety of art materials to color, paint and/or decorate the puppet with additional materials like craft feathers.

Printing and assembly instructions:

1. Ahead of time, cut a piece of black or dark brown construction paper to cover the front of the paper bag, glue and fit under the flap.
2. The wing templates can be traced to black or dark brown construction paper or colored in.
3. Print templates of your choice with or without Uncle Sam hat. Help to cut out if needed and group templates > hat templates, head templates and body templates separately.
   
4. Optional > Distribute Uncle Sam hat templates. Make a demonstration of how the hat is assembled and make sure to discuss and identify the recognizable shapes: stars, rectangles, etc. Discuss the national colors of the United States (red, blue and white as depicted in the hat). Idea: The hat can be assembled ahead of time to make the craft a bit easier for large groups or younger children.
5. Distribute head pieces (head, eyes and beak). Have the children glue the assembled Uncle Sam hat over the head first.
6. Glue the face features > eyes and beak (optional: substitute eye paper templates with plastic wiggly eyes).
7. Glue the finished head (with or without hat) over the edge of the front flap of bag.
8. Glue the wings, tail and feet.
9. Here is a generic illustration of how to place pieces on the bag.

Templates:

• Close template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to minimum or review Print Help.

Template 1:     color     B&W

Template 2:     color     B&W

Template 1:     color     B&W

Template 2:     color     B&W

Complementary activities:

• Bald eagle lesson plan: acquaint children with this bird and related activities.
  
  
• Alphabet: Introduce or review letter E eagle activities:
  
  
  

Animals > Birds > Eagle or USA Theme >