Instruct students to create an alien life-form puppet. Offer students no other direction except to provide a list of available or acceptable construction materials. Leave the list of allowed materials as open-ended as possible. If the puppet must be created in class, provide as many different supplies as possible. Ask students to create a paper backdrop in front of which the alien puppet will "explain" the conditions under which it lives. Propose to students that the alien might need different and unusual body parts to survive on its planet.
Prompt students to create a puppet of a new species of animal discovered by scientists in a faraway corner of the Earth. Offer ideas about possible habitats in the form of a list of known habitats around the world but no firm suggestions as to where scientists discovered the animal. Provide students with a paper bag in which to store their puppet and require that students decorate the outside of the bag to suggest where on Earth the new animal was discovered.
Prompt students to imagine life 2,000 years in the future and suggest that robots now provide many services that humans once provided. Tell students that robots in the future are created solely from recycled materials to better preserve the Earth. Have students use materials of their choice to create a robot from recycled materials. The robot should be designed to do a specific job in the future that the student chooses.
Have students choose any classic or popular children's story. Instruct students to create a puppet in the form of a new and important character whose presence in the story would significantly change its outcome. Students are to create the completely original character and be prepared to explain how it would impact the story. Provide students with a variety of textile materials, papers and clays for creating the puppet.