Easy Paper Plate Crafts

Children under the age of six often look for ways to express themselves. They love arts and crafts projects but are limited in what they can do. Paper plates are cheap for parents and teachers to purchase. They also lend themselves to numerous crafts that small fingers are capable of handling.

Aquariums

Give each child a paper plate and some green or blue tinted tissue paper. If the children are too young, cut the tissue paper into pieces--otherwise let the children do it. The children can glue these pieces to the inside of the paper plate. Have the children glue objects they would find in an aquarium to the paper plate. They can use pictures of sea life from magazines, or they can use Swedish fish or Goldfish crackers. Give the children little shells, pieces of seaweed or coral. Let each child make his own aquarium with the pieces he chooses. When the aquariums are finished, wrap them in cellophane or a sheet of plastic wrap.

Mobiles

Cut several paper plates in half and give one half to each child. Allow the children to punch four holes across the flat side of the mobile. This is where they will hang their objects. Punch one more hole at the top of the curve of the plates. Thread yarn through this hole, and tie it in a loop so that the children can hang their mobiles up later. Have each child pick a theme. Examples of themes are animals, space and astronomy, letters and numbers. Let the children use markers or crayons to color the paper plates or write their themes on them. Have the children find objects that represent their themes. They each need four objects. Tie yarn around each object and then through the hole in the bottom of the paper plate. If the theme is animals, for example, the child could have a toy tiger, snake, dog and cat. If no objects can be found, they can draw the animals on card stock, and cut them out.

Wreaths

Cut out the middle circle from each paper plate and then give them to the children. Decide what type of wreath the children want to make. If it is Christmas time, have the children paint the wreath green and then add holly leaves and berries. If it is Fourth of July, cut out stars that are red, white, and blue, and glue them around the wreath. For Mother's or Father's Day, children can trace their hands on construction paper and cut them out. They can glue the hands around the wreath. Whatever the holiday, children can paint the wreath, or glue items to it. Punch a hole in the top of the wreath and thread a piece of yarn through it for hanging.

References

• Paper Plate Crafts
• Paper Plate Wreath