Looking for farm animal crafts for kids? This Horse Paper Bag Puppet is super easy with the free printable template!

My girls are obsessed with horses right now. They play with horse toys, pretend to be horses, and pretend to ride horses. It was a pretty big deal when they had the opportunity to go horseback riding recently. What fun!

free printable horse puppet - a paper horse puppet craft with pink flower accents on a brown background

This printable horse craft is great for a farm animals theme as well as the letter H. You could also incorporate this horse puppet into a fairy tale theme or nursery rhyme unit with Humpty-Dumpty.

This paper bag horse puppet craft is perfect for younger kids (preschool and kindergarteners), but older kids might enjoy it too!

Puppets are a classic craft that spark imaginative play and are so much fun to make. It’s a great way to help little ones learn scissor skills and fine motor skills.

Let’s begin our easy horse puppet craft.

Supplies for a Paper Horse Puppet

There’s no need for googly eyes or construction paper – all you need is the free printable and a few simple craft supplies.

free horse printable template, crayons, scissors, glue stick, paper bag

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To make this easy horse craft you will need:

– Lunch size paper bag (brown or white)

– The Free Horse Template Printable

– Crayons (or markers)

 Scissors

– Glue Stick or School Glue

That’s it! Let’s begin!

How to make a Horse Puppet Craft

First, download the free printable horse puppet template and print it out.

Next, it’s time to color! Have your child color the horse template printable.

horse template colored with crayons

We colored ours brown, but horses can be variety of different colors, so you could have a black horse, a gray horse, a white horse, or any practically any combination of colors.

For ours, we colored the big horse puppet face circle brown, the ears brown, and the nose brown. Then we added some black nostrils and a mouth with a black crayon.  We colored the mane dark brown. If you like, you can add pink to the inner ears.

Once the horse template is colored, it’s time to cut! Provide your child with some kid safe scissors. We love using Fiskar’s blunt tip child safe scissors because they are easy for little hands to find cutting success!

horse puppet cut out

Explain which pieces of the horse need to be cut out. I created this horse template printable with little ones in mind, so the pieces to cut are large and spaced far apart for cutting ease.

Kids that are kindergarten age and up will likely have no trouble with this, but smaller kids may need some help with the cutting.

How to make the Printable Horse Puppet

Once your pieces are cut out, it’s time to assemble the horse paper bag puppet!

The large circle will be on the bottom of the bag. This will be the horse’s face.

Next, we like to lay out the pieces of the horse puppet template before starting to glue. This helps kids figure out where things go on the face.

On top of the large circle head, we added the nose and mouth with nostrils towards the bottom. Then we added the eyes to the face, ears on top of the horse head, and the small mane hair in between the ears.

The 2 rectangles with lines are the horse’s mane. Kids can cut out the rectangles and then cut down each of the hair lines. I like to instruct my kids to cut, cut, cut, stop! on this section.

horse craft puppet assembled

Once your child has placed all the pieces where they look good, it’s time to glue it down.

We often use a glue stick for paper bag crafts to keep them low-mess. I also love that glue sticks dry quickly so that my kids can play with their puppets right away!

School glue will work too for this easy craft, but it will take longer to dry.

1) horse puppet pieces are cut out2) child cutting the horse's mane3) gluing the mane to the back of the paper bag4) paper mane attached to the back of the puppet.

After all of the pieces have been glued onto the front, it’s time to add your big horse mane to the back of the horse’s head.

view of the mane on the backside of the horse puppet

Now the puppet horse is finished! Your child can place his/her hand inside the bag to make the puppet move!

You might like to have the kids take their horse puppets outside for a gallop around the yard!

free printable horse puppet - free template

Get the Free Horse Template Printable

Ready to start this paper bag horse craft? Grab the free printable horse puppet directly below and make it today!

You can get this free horse paper bag puppet printable here:

More Printable Paper Bag Puppets for Kids

Love Paper Bag Puppets?  You can find more themed paper bag puppets here on my blog!

There’s a Unicorn Puppet with free template here. Perfect for unicorn lovers and the letter U.

Grab a free printable Reindeer Puppet here. It’s the perfect craft for the Christmas season.

Kids can make their own paper bag puppet Pig here.  Super simple with the free printable.

Want more farm fun? There’s a free printable Cow Puppet here. So cute and easy!

There’s a fun Groundhog Puppet here. Perfect for a zoo theme or Groundhog day!

You can also find a Cat Paper Bag Puppet here. It works well for the Letter C, making a black cat for Halloween or to go along with the Hey Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme.

fast and easy horse puppet for preschoolers - free printable horse template

More Farm Crafts for Kids

Need more Farm Activities for your lesson plans?

There’s a cute Muddy Pig Craft here.  It’s super easy for little kids with the free printable template.

You can find a Cotton Ball Sheep Craft here.  Such a simple and fun arts and crafts idea for toddlers and preschoolers.

This paper Tractor Craft is so much fun!  The wheels move with the help of a brad.

There’s a huge list of Farm themed Activities here. You can find over 50 Farm crafts, sensory bins, and printables for preschoolers.

Your horse-loving child will love this Farm sensory bin idea.  Filled with the farm animals of your choice kids will enjoy plenty of pretend play.

Want to save this horse paper bag puppet for later? Pin the image below to your preschool farm crafts board on Pinterest.

free printable horse puppet for kids