DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Paper Bag Turul Craft (Hungarian
mythological creature)
This Turul is a simple puppet craft that is fun for young children to
make. It makes a great project for preschool and kindergarten kids
and works well with various fantasy books or a Hungarian mythology theme.
Materials:
- a paper lunch bag
- a printer,
- some crayons,
- scissors,
- glue,
- paper for the printer
Optional:
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| What is the Turul?
In Hungarian mythology, the Turul is the divine
messenger who sits atop the tree of life with the other spirits of
unborn children (all in the form of birds).
According to the myth, the Turul appeared in a dream
to Emese, wife of Ügyek (descended from Attila the Hun). It
symbolically impregnated her causing a stream of crystal-clear water
started to flow from her. As the water flowed west, it grew into a
great river. This dream signified that her child was going to be
the father of a line of great rulers. After this dream, she gave
birth to Álmos, who went on to become the first Grand Prince of the
Magyars (Hungarian tribe). |
PRINT THE TEMPLATE:
- Print out the template of choice (color or b&w)
- Colour (as required) and cut out the template
pieces.
GET FAMILIAR WITH YOUR PAPER BAG:
- I'm going to walk through this slowly. Look at
your paper bag.
- It should be closed and flat like a piece of
paper. Just like when they are brand new.
- On one side, it's all smooth. This will be the BACK of your puppet
- It's important that all the kids get the back
and front straight at the beginning!
- On the other side there's a flippy tab (which is
typically the bottom of the bag when you're carrying your lunch around...)
- This flippy tab will be the HEAD
- Lift the flippy tab up a bit. Underneath of the
tab will be the mouth,
- When the child puts her hand in the bag,
she'll be able to make the puppet talk.
- Look at the rest of the front of the bag. (The
3/4 or so of the bag below the part with the flippy tab) This will be the
BODY.
- Look at the sides of the bag. There should be a
FLAP of paper.
- We'll be slipping the wings into this flap.
- If the kids goof and glue the wings onto the
front or back of the bag, it isn't a big deal.
- OK, now that we're comfy with our bags, let's
craft!
Assemble your puppet:
- Glue the feather tuft to the top of the HEAD
- Glue the eyes and eyebrows onto the HEAD
just under the feathers. If you like, you can use wiggly eyes instead of
the paper template pieces.
- Glue the beak under the eyes.
It will likely hang down over a little bit of the
BODY. Make sure you just put glue on top of
the beak (where it touches the HEAD) so you don't end up
gluing the mouth shut.
- Glue the wings into the FLAP.
- Glue the feet onto the bottom of the
BODY
- Glue the tail onto the BACK.
- Optional: The Turul is often depicted holding a sword in
its talons (in mythology this is either described as a divine sword
or the sword of Attila the Hun).
Printing the Template:
- Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
- Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one
page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).
Print friendly version of these instructions
