Take one simple paper plate; open the doors to your craft cupboard at home and you open a world of innovative and easy crafts for kids.
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Plate Faces
One of the most obvious crafts for kids using paper plates are face collages. Start by encouraging the child to colour a white plate so it matches a skin shade. Now for the really fun bit, they have to turn the plate into a face.
It’s a really interesting exercise to set up a mirror where they’re working and ask them whether they can make the plate look like themselves. Use lots of safe PVA glue to stick the features to the plate. Some ideas for features are:
- Hair- strands of wool, cotton wool, feathers, paper strips or raffia.
- Eyes- buttons, ‘googly eyes’, sticky shapes or foam.
- Mouth- wool, red beads, string.
With the simple addition of some elastic and carefully cut holes, the plate face can easily be converted into a mask. The best crafts for kids are simple but offer lots of variations.
Dinner Plates
Children love the idea of cooking a meal long before they are able. How about presenting them with a simple paper plate and challenging them to create a delicious meal? Some ideas for food they could include are:
- Scrunched up tissue paper for vegetables like sweet corn or peas.
- Coloured clay or play dough for carrots, potatoes and sausages.
- Cut foam shapes for fried eggs, chops and bacon.
- Cotton wool for mashed potatoes or ice-cream
- Shiny paper or foil for sauces or gravy.
These activities are great for teaching children about the basics of healthy eating, making crafts for kids a thoroughly educational experience. Also, with a whole range of food-making activities, children can open up their very own cafe or restaurant.
Spider Plates
Paper plates make superb spiders. Start by colouring a plate black. Kids can then fix eight lengths of pipe cleaners with sticky tape to the edges of the plate for legs. Add ‘googly eyes’ and little blobs of fluff made from blackened cotton wool. Finish the cute spider with a length of elastic so the kids can dangle the insects menacingly.
Fishy Plates
Take one paper plate and cut a large V-shape from one edge. Fix the cut-out wedge onto the opposite edge of the plate. Suddenly the plate has become a fish! The next step is to fix some red foam or felt shapes around the mouth to create lips and a googly eye to complete the fishy face. Kids can decorate their fish with paint or coloured crayons or pencils. For a more authentic look, they’ll love cutting and gluing rainbow scales using tissue paper.
Paper Plate Flowers
Kids will love these gorgeous flowers. The centre of the plate is the centre of the flower. Start by fixing the petals to the outside edge. This can be done by cutting large tear shaped petals from coloured paper or by using small hands as stencils which will make perfect ‘finger petals’. The petals can also be decorated with patterns or adorned with a little glue and glitter.
Once the petals have been fixed to the flower with sticky tape, the centre of the bloom can be decorated with a mosaic of tissue paper balls. Finish the flower with an old paper towel tube which has been squashed at one end for easy fixing. Kids will enjoy the chance to get their paints out and colour the new stem a nice bright shade of green. Finished- another successful project!
Crafts for kids with paper plates show how easy it is to turn very ordinary household items into something very special with lots of fun along the way. Ask your children what they can make from a simple paper plate and they’re sure to come up with ideas you’d never even dreamt of!
