Hand Print Easter Chicken Puppets

Chick Puppet Craft

List of Supplies:

Art paper – white
Scissors
Colored craft paper – orange
Craft glue
Googly eyes
Popsicle stick
Poster color – of your choice
Feather – matching color with the poster color.

Instruction:

Step (1)

Place the art paper on a flat surface. Select the poster color you want for the chick puppet and apply it all over the palm and fingers of any one hand. Place and press the painted hand on the art paper quickly before the paint dries. Keep your hand still otherwise the handprint will turn out messy. After a few seconds, carefully take off your hand from the paper.

Step (2)

Use scissors to cut out the painted handprint from the art paper. Simply cut along the outer end of the pattern.

Step (3)

Cut out a small triangle shape and 2 strips from orange colored craft paper. Create accordion folds on the 2 strips.

Step (4)

Glue 2 pieces of yellow colored feather on the cut out handprint pattern. Place the cut out handprint with its fingers facing upwards and glue the feathers on both sides of it (along the thumb and the pinky).

Step (5)

Glue the googly eyes and the triangle shape on the palm area of the handprint pattern; gluing the googly eyes on the top side and the triangle shape right below the eyes. The chick is almost ready.

Step (6)

Attach the handprint chick on the popsicle stick. Glue the 2 accordion fold strips at the back side of the bottom end of the chick puppet.

Done!

Read These Next

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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