paper plate Archives - Page 3 of 4

Paper Plate Shark Mask with Mask Template

June 6, 2016 By Deirdre

After taking a break last week to share some LEGO posts with you, I have another ocean themed craft to share with you. This paper plate shark mask would be a fun craft to create during an ocean unit, Shark Week (It is usually celebrated at the end of June or the beginning of July.), or after reading one of the shark themed children’s books listed at the end of this post.

Paper Plate Shark Masks

Supplies:

Paper plates
Yarn
Blue paint
Turquoise paint
Plastic fork

Creating Your Shark Mask

You will need to start by tracing the Paper Plate Shark Pattern onto a paper plate. You can also trace the fin pattern on a second paper plate.

There isn’t a pattern for the teeth. They will be very easy to cut out of the outside edge of the first or second paper plate.

Now that you have all the pieces cut out it is time to paint. We used a mixture of blue and turquoise paints on the fin and the shark’s head with a fork. The front and back of the fork were used to get paint in the plate’s ridges and on its rim.

Once the paint was dry the teeth and fin were glue into place. We used a Elmer’s school glue it.

Adding a Way to Wear This Paper Plate Shark

You will notice I haven’t shown you a picture displaying how to wear the a mask. There are a variety of way to make your mask wearable.

Here are some I have thought of:

Staple yarn to either side of the paper plate shark
Staple a piece of sentence strip to the paper plate shark that fits around the back of your child’s head.
Attach pipe cleaners to either side of the paper plate mask. Bend the ends down like the stems of a pair of glasses.

It would be fun for kids read or have a book read to them while wearing their paper plate shark mask. Here are a few we have enjoyed:

The links below are affiliate links.

Shark vs. Train
Clark the Shark
Deep-Sea Disaster (Shark School)
Nugget and Fang: Friends Forever Snack Time?
Surprising Sharks: Read and Wonder

Here are some more paper plate ocean themed crafts and another fun shark craft:

Ocean Animals- Paper Plate Craft

Paper Plate Jellyfish

Arts and Crafts for Kids- Pool Noodle Shark

Paper Plate Crafts – Cupcake Liner Jellyfish

May 17, 2016 By Deirdre

This is the third in a series of paper plate crafts that feature ocean animals. The previous paper plate crafts featured an octopus and a starfish. ( I hope you will take a moment and check them out.)

Jellyfish are JDaniel’s favorite ocean creature. I totally understand why. They have such fluid movement as the glide through the water. This craft tries to capture that movement.

How we put this craft together:

Painting the Plate

We started by painting the back of a paper plate blue. (The cheap paper plates seem to be the easiest to paint. The heavier plates seem to absorb paint.) A standard children’s paintbrush was used to paint the plate. You could use a sponge brush or fork if you like.

Creating the Jellyfish

The bell or top of the jellyfish was made with a small cupcake liner cut in half. The edges of the cupcake liner half were rounded to make give it a better shape. (Your children can leave the edges straight if they like. It is really a style preference.)

Then slits were cut into a tissue paper square and a square cut from a plastic zipper bag. We tried to make sure the squares were about the same size. It really doesn’t matter how many slits you place in each. You can place one on top of the other and cut the slits in both of them at the same time.

Next we taped the plastic bag square to the tissue square on area without slits. They were then taped to the back of each the cupcake liners.

Finally the placement of the jellyfish was decided on the paper plate. It was fun to try arranging them in various ways. When we found an arrangement we liked they were glued to the paper plate.

More Paper Plate Crafts:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Mask

Paper Plate Greenhouse

Pi Paper Plate Circle Craft

Arts and Crafts Fine Motor Paper Plate Octopus

May 15, 2016 By Deirdre

I promised you a series of arts and crafts with an ocean animal themes this summer. This is the second arts and crafts project in the series. Last week I shared with you a starfish craft that focused on cork and sponge painting. Today’s arts and crafts project focuses on fine motor skills. Kids will paint with a gripped fork, a pincher gripped zipper tab and use a hole punch. While each of these skills is just plain fun, they also help kids strengthen their fine motor skills.

The links below are affiliate links.

Fine Motor Activities

Fork Painting

We started by using the front and back of a plastic fork to spread blue tempera paint all over the back of a paper plate. The back side of the fork just below the tines or prongs was great for spreading the paint all over the plate. The tines or prongs were great for adding texture and ocean like currents in the paint.

Zipper Painting

I cut a zipper out of an old pair jeans that had developed big holes in its knees. We painted with the zipper open and the zipper closed. The pull tab or slider (Those are its official names. I looked it up.) were great for grabbing onto with a pointer finger and thumb grip. It made it easy to move the zipper from the paint to the paper.

We dipped the zipper into turquoise paint and and bright green paint on a piece of white paper. Once the paper was dry, we cut an octopus out of the paper.

Hint: Younger children could trace an octopus shaped octopus cookie cutter or template. Drawing an octopus free hand would be a challenge. Then they could they cut it out or you could cut it out for them.

Hole Punching

Whether you have cut out a free hand drawn octopus or one traced with a cookie cutter, it is now time to punch circles onto its legs. We punched three holes into each of the octopus’s legs. (Your kids could cut out as many as they like.) We also punched two holes in the octopus’s head.

Here are some more arts and crafts activities for kids:

Tape Crafts for Kids

Flower Crafts for Kids

Moon with Craters Craft

Summer Crafts with an Ocean Theme for Kids

May 12, 2016 By Deirdre

When I think of the ocean and summer crafts, I think of ocean animals. This paper plate starfish craft is the first in a series of ocean animal crafts. During the summer I will be sharing ocean themed summer crafts with you twice a month. While I will be calling them summer crafts, you can totally do them as part of an ocean or beach unit anytime of the year.

How We Put Together The First of the Summer Crafts

Two painting tools were used to create this paper plate starfish craft. Let me walk you through how we used each of the tools and how we painted with them.

The links below are affiliate links.

Creating the Ocean and Sand

We used a sponge brush to create the top and bottom sections of the paper plate. We didn’t have tempera paint at our house so, I created it with yellow and brown paint. We had turquoise paint so, we were able to paint the ocean without mixing colors.

The sand and ocean were created by dabbing the sponge brush to the back of a paper plate. We wanted the both areas to have a little texture.

Creating the Starfish

We used two old corks to paint the paper we would use to make the starfish. We needed one cork for the magenta paint and red paint. We used dapping motions to try to create the texture on the top of a starfish.

When the painted paper was dry, we used a star shaped cookie cutter to trace a star on the back of the paper. Then we cut the star out. We didn’t add any facial features to our starfish. We decided it would make it look too cute. Feel free to add facial features or outline the starfish if you like.

Then the starfish was glued onto the plate.

Here are some more summer crafts for kids:

Ocean Animals- Paper Plate Craft

Kids Song About Five Little Starfish and Craft

Easy Craft Ideas – How to Make a Paper Turtle

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Paper Plate Mask

April 4, 2016 By Deirdre

This post contains an affiliate link.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? is one of those stories your children love to hear over and over again. After reading so many times, children memorize the words found in the book Brown Bear, What Do You See? Why not create a paper plate mask with kids that they can use to retell the story or play a version of I Spy with much like the Brown Bear did. I think kids would really love it.

The paper plate mask was designed to not cover a child’s whole face. Some kids just don’t like their whole face covered. I will share with your several ways that kids can hold or wear their mask too. Some kids don’t actually want to wear their masks.

Making the Brown Bear, Brown Bear Mask

We started by cutting a paper plate in half horizontally. Actually we didn’t cut the plate all the way across. We did cut a nose spot in the center of the plate. Then we cut two eye holes.

Two ears were cut out of the paper plate scraps. One nose was cut out of a scrap piece too.

We happened to have a few colors of brown paint in our craft closet. I placed some of each on a paper plate for us to fork paint with. The ears and mask were all painted with long strokes of the back of an old fork.

While the paint was drying, the nose was colored black with a marker.

When all the Brown Bear, Brown Bear mask sections were dry, the mask was assembled. We used a glue stick to put each of the parts in place.

Things to Attach to the Brown Bear, Brown Bear Mask

You could just hold the mask with one or two of your hands if you like. Here are several ways to wear the mask:

Punch holes on each of the sides. Attach string to each side through the holes. Then tie the string in the back of your child’s head.
Staple twine to each of the sides and tie the twine behind your child’s head.
Glue a tongue depressor to back on the mask on one side. Kids can hold the mask over their face by the tongue depressor.

Ways to Use the Mask

The mask can be worn while retelling the story.
One child at a time can share something outside that they see while wearing their masks.
You have all the children wear their masks. They can take turns saying a friend in the room that they see. This is a great way for children to work on the names of their friends.

You will find more paper plate crafts on my Paper Plate Crafts Pinterest board. Here are a few paper plate crafts you will find right here on JDaniel4’s Mom.

STEM Paper Plate Greenhouse

Paper Plate Lion and Lamb

Paper Plate Paddington

Free Bear Mask Template

Ocean Animals Paper Plate Craft

STEM Gardening- Paper Plate Greenhouse

March 7, 2016 By Deirdre

Each spring JDaniel and I plant bean seeds. Last year we planted seeds in a plastic Easter egg. A few years ago we planted a seeds in an indoor paper plate garden. We are repeating the paper plate garden or greenhouse project. This year it is going to be a STEM project. We are going to keep track on the temperature of the room we are hanging the plant in and amount of water the plant is being given. JDaniel is going to be given the opportunity to come up with a few other variables he would to explore. The ultimate goal is to have the seeds in the greenhouse grow into healthy bean plants.

Let me walk you through how to make the paper plate greenhouse:

Cut a house shape out of two paper plates. One plate will be the front of your house and one will be the back. Cut a square of the same size out of both of the paper plates.

Decorate the plate that will be on the front of the paper plate greenhouse. While you could use a color motif, free drawing or doodle would be fine too.

Then it is time to assemble the paper plate greenhouse. It is kind of like putting together a sandwich. You have a plastic zipper bag between the two paper plates. The bag is stapled to the plates at the top right above the zipper. The two plates are give two extra staples at the bottom below the bag.

We had to tuck our bag up a little to keep it above the staples. I didn’t want to have holes in the bag. Keeping it holes free kept it a closed environment.

Two bean seeds are then placed inside a folded damp paper towel. We used two seeds just encase one of them doesn’t sprout. This year we are trying to grow organic beans. You can try growing any type of bean or plant you like!

Finally the paper plate greenhouse needs to be hung in a sunny spot. We have ours in the door near the kitchen table. It gets a lot of sun. It is also a place that we can see if the paper towel has dried it. If it does, we can unzip the bag a little dampness to the bag.

You will find more science experiments like this simple pendulum experiment on my Early Learning Science board on Pinterest. Please take moment to check them out.

Building Background

If your children don’t know a lot about gardening , you may want to read a book or do an activity that features them before you start these pages.

The links below are affiliate links.

This fun STEAM building kit invites children to create and build a garden of spring flowers.

Oh, Say Can You Seed?: All About Flowering Plants is a wonderful Cat in the Hat book that teaches children about the parts of plants and how they grow.

What fun it would be to plant a planter and then grow flowers in it!

The Garden Classroom: Hands-On Activities in Math, Science, Literacy, and Art does a wonderful job of tying learning into growing.

More Gardening Projects

It will be fun to see what color of clear plastic egg will have its seed germinate first. We really enjoyed this STEM experiment at my house.

Seed Germination- Will the Color of the Egg Effect Seed Growth? -Seeds in Soil

Growing seeds without soil or hydroponic gardening will be fascinating for your children to see.

Hydroponic Gardening with Kids - Bean Space Garden : Kids will love watching the bean seed grow without soil and floating in space and growing!

Pi Day Paper Plate Circle Craft

March 2, 2016 By Deirdre

Pi the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. Whoa! This is got to be something for big kids to explore you maybe thinking! Well, I think young learners can learn about Pi Day and what Pi is too. They don’t need to explore the numbers related to Pi if you don’t think they are ready. They can craft with the Pi symbol and circles.

No, I am not advocating just throwing the symbol and some circles on a craft. I would talk about how Pi Day is March 14 because the first few numbers in Pi are 3.14. March is the third month and the 14th is the 14th day. I would tell them that circumference is the distance around something. I would finish by telling them that Pi deals with circles.

Then I would have them create the Pi Day sun catcher. Each of its sections shares something about Pi. There are lots of circles, some of the numbers in Pi, and the Pi sign. Let me walk you through how we made it.

Pi Day Day Craft

Supplies

Paper plate
Magic marker
Scissors
Glue Stick
Several sheets of different colored tissue paper
Black construction paper

Directions

Cut the center space out of a paper plate. We cut our as close to the border of the plate as we could.

Along the inside edge of the plate write as many numbers in Pi as you can. If your children are still writing large numbers, they may not fit as many numbers around the edge of the plate as we did. That is just fine.

Here are some of the numbers in Pi: 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286 208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481 1174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334

Cut out a piece of tissue paper that is large enough to fill the space in the plate that you have cut out.

Glue this piece of tissue paper to the back of your plate.

Cut out small circles from various colors of tissue paper.

Glue the circles on the the tissue in the center of the plate. We randomly glued ours on.

Cut out a Pi sign out of black paper. You can have them cut out for your kids if you like.

Glue the Pi sign onto the center of your plate.

We hung our sun catchers for Pi Day in the brightest window of our house. It is such fun to watch the circles in the circle light up!

I hope you will check out our Pi Day Pie Day recipe here on JDaniel4’s Mom and more of our math activities! You will also find a number of amazing math activities on my Early Learning Math board on Pinterest.

Community Helpers- Counting Numbers on a Fire Hose

January 10, 2016 By Deirdre

This counting numbers firefighter could be constructed by an adult for a child or by a child themselves. This counting numbers firefighter was made my me for kids to use. It would look more organic if a child had made it, but I decided you would want to see a less organic version to get sense of what it could look like.

Creating the Counting Numbers on Fire Hose Activity

The crafty part of the project is to create a firefighter that is standing sideways on a small paper plate. The firefighter I made is made up of a hat, a little hair (I didn’t want the firefighter to look bald.), a fire fighter’s coat, two small hands, and boots. Outlines were drawn onto the hair, hat, and coat with marker. This will be laminated to use with children! I didn’t laminate it for the picture. (It would have added a glare to the picture.)

The fire hose was cut out of a file folder. A notch was cut into front of the file folder strip to make it look more hose like. The numbers and hose outline were drawn on with marker.
A small slit was cut into the plate after the various parts of the fire fighter were glued on. I placed the slit in front of the fire fighter’s hand to make if look like they were holding it. The fire hose was then slipped through the slit.

Number Hose Ideas

We place numbers one through ten on the hose. The goal was to work on basic counting.
If you wanted to work on skip counting by twos or fives, you could write those numbers on the hose.
You could place only even numbers in number sequence or odd numbers on the hose.

There are probably a number of other number concepts you could place on the hose. If you have one you want to share, please leave a comment below.

Here are some other wonder activities that work on counting numbers:

New Year’s Eve Counting Numbers

Weaving a Web of Counting Numbers

How to Make Interactive Math Games Focuses on Counting

I will be sharing firefighter themed activities all week. Please come back to check the rest of the activities. You can also find them being share on my Facebook page this week.

Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids- Paper Plate Turkeys

November 9, 2015 By Deirdre

Last week I shared with you a quirky paper plate turkey that JDaniel and I made several years ago. Today I want to share with you a fine motor paper plate turkey we made along with ten other awesome paper plate turkeys made by others. You will find that they have two things in common. They look like turkey and they made with paper plates. Each is unique, fun and would be easy for kids young and old to make.

Fine Motor Paper Plate Turkey

Children will used a variety of fine motor skills to create this paper plate turkey. They will grip and punch holes in using a hole punch. Children will cut out a portion of the paper plate. They will also thread pipe cleaners through the hols and twist them so they will stay in place.

How to Make the Fine Motor Paper Plate Turkey

You will start by cutting out the section of the plate that would display the turkey’s head and feet.

Then use a hole punch to create an arc of holes around the edge of the plate.

Pipe cleaners will then threaded up one hole and thread down a near by hole. Before twisting them in place the pipe cleaners will need to be pulled out of form an arch. The goal is to create feathers. Your children may arrange the feathers away they like.

When the feathers are in place on the turkey, you will need to cut out the turkey’s head, facial features, and feet.

Then glue the construction paper turkey parts onto the paper plate.

More Paper Plate Turkey Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids

Paper Plate Turkey Using Tissue Paper by Crafty Morning

Painted Paper Plate Turkey by Happy Hooligans

Paper Plate Turkey Craft with Hand Print Feathers by I Heart Art n Crafts

Paper Plate Turkey Puppet by Coffee Cups and Crayons

Plump and Perky Turkey by I Heart Crafty Things

Fun Turkey with Real Feathers byABC Creative Learning

Easy Paper Plate Turkey by Fantastic Fun and Learning

Paper Plate Shape Turkey Craft by Toddler Approved

Paper Plate Turkey Craft with Coffee Filter Feathers by A Little Pinch of Perfect

Paper Plate and Ribbon Turkey by Glued to My Crafts

Thanksgiving Crafts- Paper Plate Turkey

November 4, 2015 By Deirdre

When JDaniel was in preschool we made a paper plate turkey just like this. It was one of those Thanksgiving crafts that you hold onto. You take it out just to remember the crafts you made together.

Recently I made a new turkey paper plate craft to share with you. I thought it would be fun to make with your kids. They will love the whimsy that the cupcake liner eyes give the turkey. I bet their turkey will make you smile.

Here is what you need to put together your own turkey Thanksgiving crafts:

Variety of brightly colored construction paper sheets
Black and white construction paper
Paper plates
Cupcake liners
Glue sticks
Scissors

Putting your turkey together:

Cutting Out Turkey Craft Pieces

Turkey Feathers

You can have your children cut out turkey feathers or you can cut them out for them. If you want them to cut out the feathers, you may want to have feather outlines drawn on the construction paper. It will make it easier for the feathers they cut out to look like feathers.

Turkey Feet

You can have the feet cut out ahead of time or your children can cut them out. You may want to have the outlines of the feet pre-draw. It will make it easier for the children. You will also be able to identify the feet as feet that way.

Facial Features

You may want to have the outlines of the eyes, beak and waddle drawn on the paper for kids to cut out just as you did for the feathers and feet. You can have them cut out for them instead if you like.

I remember having them cut out for my son to add to the paper plate.

Assembling the Turkey

Once you have all the craft pieces cut out, all that is left to do is to assemble the turkey. I found it was easier to do the feathers and the feet first. That way the cupcake liners weren’t smashed when the plate was laid face down to add the feathers and feet.