What you will need:

Pipe cleaners
Patty pans/paper
Coloured textas/oil pastels/chalk
All optional - collage materials like feathers, fabric, coloured tape, glue stick

What to do:

To start with a basic character shape, you’ll need two pipe cleaners. Match them up end to end and then bend them in half, to create a loop. Hold the loop between your fingers and twist it around to secure it. This circle shape will become the head of the character.

With the 4 pieces below the circle, two of them can be twisted together to become the torso and legs while the other two can become arms.

In the video below, we have used patty pans to create clothing for the characters. We used chalk to colour in one white patty pan and scissor and glue to attach feathers to the other patty pan. Folding the patty pan in half and then half again, we snip a very little hole to slide the character legs through to secure the clothing around the characters waist.

Extension ideas:

Once you have the basic shape you can then think about the position your character might be in, are they running? Jumping? Cartwheeling? Does your character need clothing? A house? Use the materials you have and even think about what other materials you could utilise from around the house. Maybe a shoe box could become the home for you characters to live in? You might even want to think about writing or drawing a book about the life of your character.

Pipe cleaner characters