How to Make a Jumping Jack

This is a jumping jack that I illustrated. The original art is in pastel and then I copied the image onto card stock to make the jumping jack jack. The jumping jack is for sale at my etsy shop and I also have a template available for you to download so that you can design your own. The template includes directions for engineering the back so that the doll moves when you pull the string. Available here.

 

The jumping jack is a toy whose origins date back thousands of years. The jointed jumping-jack figure is a cross between a puppet and a paper doll. Their limbs are jointed and tied to a pull string. When the string is pulled and released, the arms and legs move up and down.
This is a fun project to do with children. I recently made them with a group of Kindergarteners using the template at my etsy shop. I enlarged them so that they would be easier for the children to work with and printed them on card stock. They first used colored pencils to create their own figure and then cut out the pieces. They are a little tricky to assemble and do require a fair amount of patience, so I took care of that part for them.