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Little Jack Horner Paper Plate Pie Craft

April 24, 2017 By Deirdre

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Have you ever wondered what was in Little Jack Horner’s Christmas pie? I decided to search for Little Jack Horner’s Christmas pie and find out. What a found was the background story behind the Little Jack Horner. It turns out Jack’s real name was Tom Horner. According to some Tom was sent to London by an abbot with a pie filled with the deeds to several properties to give to Henry VIII. On his way to London Tom snuck a plum property out of the pie for himself. Others say he paid for the land manor himself and the legend is untrue. If you want to learn more about nursery rhymes Pop Goes the Weasel: The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes is a good book to explore.

Little Jack Horner’s Plum Pie Craft

Let me walk you through the directions on how to make a Little Jack Horner’s paper plate craft. If you come up with different ways you want to do each step with your children, please let me know what you end up doing. You can post a picture of your pie on my Facebook page.

Supplies

Paper Plate
Brown Construction Paper
Purple Construction Paper
Brown Lunch Sack
Scissors
Glue

Getting the Paper Parts Cut Out

You will need to start by tracing the hand of your child or having them trace their own hand. Then cut the hand out.

Next, you or your children will need to trace 12 circles onto the purple paper. If you have a plastic egg handy, your children can use half of it to trace the circles.

The brown construction paper will then need to be cut into strips or really long rectangles. Strips that are about 2 inches wide are great!

Putting the Pie Together

Now that everything has been cut out it is time to put Little Jack Horner’s pie together. The purple circles will need to be glued down first. Set one of the circles aside to use later.

Then the brown strips will be glued vertically and then horizontally across the plate. They will give the pie a criss-cross design.

Finally, the hand will need to glued near the edge of the plate. Your children then will glue the circle that was set aside to the thumb. It will represent the plum that was pulled out of the pie.

This post is a part of the Virtual Book Club’s celebration of nursery rhymes. Here are some more great nursery rhyme activities:

Mary Had a Little Lamb Alphabet Puzzles
Hickory Dickory Dock Clock Play
Humpty Dumpty Egg Sensory Bin
Rainstorm Art Project (Rain, Rain Go Away)
I’m A Little Teapot Pour Painting
5 Little Ducks
Nursery Rhyme Olympics

Bird Nest Craft- Paper Plate Nest

April 6, 2017 By Deirdre

Earlier this week I shared with you a plastic egg math activity called Muffin Tin and Egg Number Match. I know you love paper plate crafts so I created one for you that has an egg and bird theme. Your children will have fun creating this bird nest craft. It will be a wonderful way to use all those small sticks your children collect.

Bird Nest Craft

Supplies

Paper Plates
Paper Lunch Sack
Small Sticks
Extra Strength Glue Sticks
Scissors
Blue Paper

Directions for Putting the Bird Nest Craft Together

Your children will need to start by gathering small sticks in your backyard or a local park. You can create this craft without them, but they do give the craft a more authentic look.

Then the paper lunch sack will need to be cut into vertical strips. It really doesn’t matter if the strips are thin or thick. We ended up with a mixture of both on our nest.

Next, the strips and the sticks will need to be glued onto the paper plate. Your children will need to layer the stick and the paper strips. They may want to weave the paper bag strips over and under the sticks to help the sticks stay in place.

Finally, your children will need to cut out several egg shapes from the blue paper. We didn’t decorate our eggs, but feel free to have your children decorate them if they want to. Then they will then glue them into the nest.

If you like your bird nest craft made with a paper plate, here are some more paper plate crafts.

Paper Plate Boat Craft with Waves

Pete the Cat Paper Plate Mask

Red Eyed Tree Frog Mask

Cupcake Liner Jellyfish Paper Plate Craft

STEM Gardening- Paper Plate Greenhouse

You will find more fun crafts on my Crafts for Kids board on Pinterest.

Boat Craft- Paper Plate Boat with Waves

March 24, 2017 By Deirdre

This week we have explored several boat activities. We started the week with a post on How to Make a Recycled Boat. Yesterday I shared how we made two tin foil boats for the penny challenge. Today I have a boat craft for you!

This fun paper plate boat with waves rocks back and forth. Kids will love watching it move in the waves!

Boat Craft

Craft Supplies

Two paper plates per child
Scissors
Glue stick
Blue muffin cups
Green Paint
Two brass fasteners per child

Putting the Boat Craft Together

You need to start by cutting the boat shape out of one paper plate. The other paper plate you will cut in half.

You can create a more elaborate boat shape if you like. You could just cut out a window and the sides of the boat. We cut out circular cut-outs. We thought they made the windows more boat like. If you like the rectangular window, that would look great too.

After cutting out the boat, you need to paint the area below the window a bright color on the back of the plate. We painted out boat green! If you want to keep your kids from accidentally painting the top of the boat, you can cover it up.

When the paint is dry, you can add stripes or other decorations to the boat. We cut a strip out of the unused half of the second paper plate to make a stripe.

After adding the stripe or decorations, it is time to add the waves. Cupcake liners cut in half were glued facing up and facing down onto the boat. You can glue them on any way that you like.

Finally. the two paper plates will be joined at the bow (front) and stern (back) with brass fasteners when you are done painting and gluing.The backs of the plates should both be facing out. It will make the boat easier to rock!

Now it is time to rock your boats. We found that the boat rocked well on all kinds of surfaces.

Here are more paper plate crafts you will love:

Pete the Cat Paper Plate Mask

Green Eyed Tree Frog Mask

Cupcake Liner Jellyfish

STEM Gardening- Paper Plate Greenhouse

Back to School Crafts and Books

September 5, 2016 By Deirdre

Earlier this summer I shared a number of Back to School crafts based on favorite children’s books. I thought you would enjoy getting to see them all together. Each of the Back to School crafts is a paper plate mask. If you don’t want to turn them into masks. You could have your children create a puppet or stand-alone craft.

You can make the craft a puppet by adding a stick to the back of your paper plate. Your children could hold up the puppet when they do story retellings. The stand-alone craft could be hung up in your classroom or home. It would be fun to have a set of Back to School crafts hanging near children’s books.

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Back to School Crafts and Books

Let me share with you a little about each of the Back to School crafts and the books they are based on. After you find the crafts you want to make with your children, you can click its link and learn more about how to put it together.

The Kissing Hand

The Kissing Handwas a favorite of my son’s K4 teacher. She read it to him during his first week of school. I just love that Mrs. Racoon helps her son remember he is loved even when they are apart. When he is a school and he feels lonely at school, all he has to do is press his hand to his cheek to feel the warmth of his mother’s kiss.

This is one of the simplest Back to School crafts. It doesn’t have a lot of sections and used only two colors of paint. There is a mask template available here.

Llama Llama Misses Mama

Being in a new place without the comfort of a parent with you is hard. Llama Llama Misses Mama shares that it is okay to miss your mom during the day.

This is the simplest of the paper plate crafts. It uses only one color of paint. The craft has very few pieces for you to put together.

If You Take a Mouse to School

Your kids will love the rhythm and flow of If You Take a Mouse to School. Many of them will start to guess what will happen next.

Your children will have fun adding facial features to their brown-painted plates. You can have the pieces pre-cut or have your children create their own. The template for this mask can be downloaded here.

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books! is part of a fun series of Old Lady books. In this book, she inhales a number of school supplies.

Of all the Back to School crafts, this one has the most pieces. It also uses four different colors of paint. You can download this mask template if you don’t want to make your own.

Pete the Cat Rocking My School Shoes

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoesis just one of the Pete books that have a school theme. You could create this craft to go with a number of his books. The template for this mask is available here.

Wheels on the Bus Song Inspired Craft

August 5, 2016 By Deirdre

The Wheels on the Bus song was taught to me by my Aunt Yvonne when I was a little girl. I thought we were singing about a city bus back then. By the time I sang it to my son I knew it could refer to a school bus too. With school starting here soon JDaniel and I created a craft based on the Wheels on the Bus Song. We made a paper plate school bus.

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This Wheels on the Bus Song inspired craft was a true collaboration. JDaniel consulted with me on the look of the craft. Researched school bus crafts. (I love that he found a school bus round up we have craft in. ) He also found a fun children’s book based on the Wheels On The Bus song. When bus was put together, he had input there too. A key element for him was having the wheels move.

Creating the Wheels on the Bus Song Craft

Supplies

Paper Plate
Scissors
Yellow Paint
Red and Black Felt
Black Construction Paper
Brass Fasteners
Hole Punch

Putting the Bus Together

You will need to start by cutting the outline of a bus out of the paper plate. Your outline will need to include two wheels. We have two windows on our bus, but you can have more windows on your bus if you like.

Next you will paint paper plate yellow. We used yellow tempera paint to paint ours. Your children can paint the wheels. We left our wheel unpainted.

Adding the Wheels to the Bus

You will need to cut out two wheels out of black felt for the bus. We traced a small lid onto the black felt with pencil and then cut the wheels out. You can have your children trace wheels, have the cut them out freehand or have the cut out for them.

Next you or your kids will need to punch holes in the middle of the wheels on the bus. Then they will punch holes in the middle of the felt wheels. You can do this for them ahead of time if you like!

Finally you will attach the wheels to the bus with brass fasteners. By punching holes in the plate and the felt wheels you will find that the wheels will spin. Your kids will love that they can go round and round!

Final Bus Details

In his research JDaniel determined that our Wheel on the Bus song inspired craft was going to need a black stripe and a stop sign. It just had to have them. I bet your children will want them added too.

We cut a long strip out of black construction paper for the stripe. I cut a square out of red felt. Then diagonally cut out the corners of the square to make an octagon.

More Back to School Crafts

Back to School Circle Crafts

If You Take a Mouse to School Mask

The Kissing Hand Craft

Pete the Cat Paper Plate Mask For Kids

August 3, 2016 By Deirdre

This post contains affiliate links.

Pete the Cat was introduced to us in a Mommy and Me class when my son was little. The book had just come out. The librarian who taught the class was so excited about sharing it with us. When I was looking for Back to School themed books to share with you, two Pete the Cat books came to mind. Both Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes and Pete the Cat: Too Cool for School are fun Back to School books I am excited to share with you.

After reading one or both of the books to your children, I thought it would be fun to make a Pete paper plate mask. Last week I shared a few other paper plate masks. There was an If You Take a Mouse to School , a There Was an Old Lady, a Llama Llama and a Kissing Hand raccoon masks.

Making the Pete the Cat Mask

Supplies

Paper Plates
Scissors
Blue, Gold, and Black Paint
Glue Stick
Plastic Fork
Paint Brush

Directions for Cutting Out the Mask

First you will cut a paper plate in half. The top half of the plate will be the face portion of the mask. The bottom half of the plate will be used to cut out the ears and the nose. Next your will cut out the four almond shaped eyes sections out of half of a second plate. Two will cut smaller and they will be glued on top of the larger sections later on.

Once you have all of the mask pieces cut out of the paper plate, you will cut the eyes out of the face section. You will find it is easier to cut the eyes out before you paint. Then you will trace the shape of your eye holes onto four almond shaped sections. Next you will cut eye holes out.

Directions for Painting the Mask

You will start by painting the face section and the ears blue. We used a fork to paint those sections of our mask.

Then you will paint the large almond shaped eye sections gold. You can fork paint them or use a paintbrush.

Finally you will paint the small almond sections black.

The cat’s nose is white and so is the plate. You will not need need to paint the nose. You may want to outline the nose with black at the same time you are creating nostrils on it.

Final Mask Creation Steps

The final step is to glue each of the sections to the facial part of the mask. You can glue the ears anywhere on the top of the head that you like. The black eye section will be glued to the gold section. Then the gold section will be glued to the plate. If they eye holes don’t match up anymore, you can trim them a little.

If you make a mask, please share a picture of it on my Facebookpage.

There Was an Old Lady Paper Plate Mask

July 27, 2016 By Deirdre

I just knew I needed to include There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly!in my Back to School book series. The Old Lady inhales all kinds of first day of school items.

Children would love creating a There Was an Old Lady mask to go with the book. I tried to come up with a simple mask that would go with all her books. This mask will also be easy for you to replicate.

Creating the There Was an Old Lady Mask

Supplies

Paper plates with ruffled edges
Scissors
Crayola Multi-Ethnic Washable Tempera Paints
Paint (Black, Gray, Yellow, BlueO
Glue

Steps for Creating the Mask

Cutting Out the Mask

You will need to start by cutting out the old lady face, hair bun, headband, and glasses out of the paper plates. First you will need to fold the plate in half. Then start by cutting on one side of the fold. When you get to where you want the nose, dip below the fold with your scissors and cut it out. Then cut out the eye holes. Next you can use part of the bottom section to cut out the hair bun. The glasses and headband can be cut out of half a second plate. The glasses are made by tracing the square eye section and half the nose area onto the plate folded in half. Then you just cut them out.

Insights:

The old lady on the cover of the Swallowed Some Books has hair band. The other covers don’t have her wearing one. You could leave it off the mask if you want to use the mask with other books.

The glasses worn by the old lady books change from book to book. Many have her wearing glasses with round frames. You may want make round glasses instead of square ones.

Painting the Mask

Most of the There Was an Old Lady books show her having pale skin. We didn’t have peach paint at home. We ended up mixing brown and white paint to make here skin. Multicultural Colors would be perfect for this project. Your children could paint the skin to match theirs if you like.
The Old Lady’s hair and bun were painted with gray and black paint. We fork painted her hair to give it texture.
The glasses weren’t painted. They are white on the book’s cover. Your children may want to outline the glasses with marker like we did.
The headband was painted in alternating stripes of blue and yellow. It could be any color. We tried to match it to the book.

Putting the Mask Together

You will need to glue the glasses, headband, and bun onto the facial mask section. We tried to make it like the book, but you can glue them on however you want.

More Books in Our Back to School book series

If You Take a Mouse to School

The Kissing Hand

Llama Llama Misses Mama (coming soon)

The Gingerbread man Loose in School (coming soon)

If You Take A Mouse To School Paper Plate Mask for Kids

July 25, 2016 By Deirdre

This post contains affiliate links.

Kids love the If You Take a Mouse books! With school starting here in just a few weeks I decided we would make an If You Take a Mouse to School paper plate mask. Kids could wear them before or after reading the book. Actually, they could make to go with If You Take a Mouse books!
This If Your Take A Mouse mask doesn’t look just like the mouse in the book. I tried to create a mask that would be simple enough for young children to make. Older children could add more details to the mask if they like.

How to Create the If You Take a Mouse to School Mask

Supplies

Paper Plates
Brown or Tan Paint
Paintbrush
Small Cap or Lid
Small Plate
Pencil
Scissors
Construction Paper (Black and Pink)

Creating the Mask

Preparing the Plates

You will start by cutting out the paper plates. One plate will be cut just below the halfway point. Then you will cut along the straight edge to create the mouse’s cheeks. The plate will then need to be folded in half. The eye holes will need to be trace onto the folder plate and then cut out. Next, you will use a small plate onto trace small circles onto two plate plates for the mouse’s ears. Finally, the ears of the mouse will need to be cut out. (We tried to include some of the ruffled edges in the circle.)

Painting

You can use brown or tan paint to paint the mouse’s head and ears. If you don’t have a tan, you can mix white and brown paint together. (That is what we did.)

Adding Construction Paper Details

You will need to cut out three long whiskers out of the black construction paper. Next, you will cut the inner ear circles and the mouse’s nose out of pink paper. Then you will glue the whiskers to the mouse’s nose. Finally, you will glue the nose to the mouse’s head.

Use This Mask with Other Mouse Themed Books

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie – This book started it all out. It follows the sequence of events that happen after you give a mouse a cookie.

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies – Just because you take a mouse to the movies doesn’t mean he will focus on the movie. His thoughts might just wander to Christmas and Christmas decorations.
Time for School, Mouse! – The mouse has lost his homework. He has a really hard time finding it. Thank goodness he finds it before he needs to head to school.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse! – Mouse creates wonderful Valentine’s for his friends. He really takes the time to tell each of them why they are special.

More Book Related Crafts

Owl Moon Paper Bag Puppet

The Kissing Hand Raccoon Mask

Red Eyed Tree Frog Rainforest Paper Plate Mask

June 12, 2016 By Deirdre

The red eyed tree frog is one of the coolest rain forest creatures. It bulging red eyes makes it look like it can take in the world.Last summer I shared with you anteater and morph butterfly crafts. They were part of a week long series on hosting a rain forest summer camp. Today’s red eyed tree frog paper plate mask and last Wednesday’s jaguar paper plate mask were created as bonus crafts. They can be used to supplement the crafts shared in rain forest camp round up or done on their own.

The red eyed tree frog mask has only five parts to it. There is the facial section that is made of half of a paper plate. The eye sections are made of the second half of the paper plate. There are also two black pieces of construction paper that are attached to the eyes.

Let me walk you through how we made our red eyed tree frog mask:

Supplies:

Paper plate
Red paint
Green paint
Plastic fork
Black construction paper
Scissors
Glue stick
Bottle cap
Pencil

How we put our red eyed tree frog together:

The eye holes need to be traced onto the paper plate half. We used a pencil to trace around the outside edge of a milk bottle cap to make the eyes.

Then the eyes holes need to be cut out. We have found it easier to cut the eye holes out before painting.

The bottom area of the eyes sections and the whole paper plate half are painted green with the top area of a plastic fork. We painted the back of the paper plate half and the front areas of the eye sections. (By using the front section of the plate for the eyes the eyes had a curved eye at the top of them.)

When the green paint had dried, we paint the bottom eye section red. We were able to get really close to the green section with the red paint by using the outside edge of the fork.

After the red paint had dried, the black almond shaped pieces of construction paper we had cut out were glued on the eyes.

Finally the eyes were glued onto the head of the red eyed tree frog.

There are several ways you can attach yarn or pipe cleaners to the mask so your children can wear it. We punched holes on the two sides of our mask and tied yarn through them. We knotted the end of the yarn going through the holes before wearing the mask. The two ends of the yarn were tied together once the mask was ready to be worn.

Here are some wonderful children’s books that feature a red-eyed tree frog:

The Little Red-Eyed Tree Frog

Rain Forests (Magic Tree House Research Guide)
You will find more rainforest crafts on my Crafts for Kids board on Pinterest.

Rainforest for Kids – Jaguar Paper Plate Mask

June 8, 2016 By Deirdre

With the Olympics being held in Brazil this summer I thought it would be the perfect time to share some rainforest for kids crafts. Later this week I will share a red eyed tree frog paper plate mask along with a collection of books that can be used to learn more about them. Today I am going to walk you through how to create a jaguar paper plate mask and some wonderful books about jaguar.

Usually when we create paper plate masks we use half of a paper plate. I like to leave space for children’s mouths to be seen. This mask almost totally covers children’s mouths. If you want your children’s mouths to show, you can modify the mask so it stops at the jaguar’s nose.

We cut out our jaguar’s head and ears freehand after folding the paper plate in half.