Fun Kid Projects: Paperplate Animals

Thinking of fun things to do with your preschoolers? School holidays are just around the corner in September. I'm sure most parents would already have awesome plans lined up, to keep your children occupied. But for cozy days in, here's an easy to do home project while spending some quality time with your child.

I'm sure you have seen paper plate animals before and they are actually very easy to make. They are generally easy for your kids to put together.

Aren't these the cutest?

1. Paper plate
2. Any water-based paint and palette
3. Glue. (If you prefer Elmer's School glue like I do, they are available at Art Friend branches at The Curve and Gardens Mall)
4. Scissors
5. Paint brush
6. Wiggle eyes
7. Construction paper
8. Crayons or markers
9. Craft stick, pompoms, other decorative materials

If you want a one stop place to buy all the items above, you can get them at Art Friend. However, Art Friend Malaysia doesn't have their own dedicated online shop. You will have to physically go there and purchase the items yourself. I've linked some of the items you can get for cheaper at Tesco and yes, they do deliver to you.

We start with the back of the paper plate and imagine that as the animal's head then think of what other shapes you will need to cut to form other parts of that animal head.

Does it have ears? Or maybe a trunk ? Draw them out for your child to cut if he or she can already master using scissors. Be sure to supervise them at all times when using something sharp. For younger children. draw and cut them out for ready use.

Get your child to attach all the animal part cut outs (eg the ears and trunk) with glue and set aside to dry. If you are short of time, double sided tapes and staplers can be an option too. This will require your supervision and help.

Remember to line your table with a protective layer or some mahjong paper for easy clean up. Position the paper plate bottom side up with the ears glued at the back. Paint the animal with any water-based paint.

Some animals may have other features like spots and stripes. Paint on some spots or stripes if your animal has these patterns. To make things more fun let your child finger paint or, you can make potato stamps or fruit and vegetable stamps for them to make the animal patterns. When the painting is done, allow the paint to dry completely.

Alternatively, you can also cut out the features using construction paper or coloured paper and your child can proceed to stick them on after the paint has dried.

Add the remaining facial features. Eyes can be made with glued on wiggle eyes, buttons or paper cut-outs. I think kids prefer the wiggly eyes because it moves and rattles when shaken.

For a lot of animals, kids can simply draw or paint on the nose and mouth. Other animals like this giraffe, have snouts. To make a snout, cut out an oval shape from construction paper and draw the animal's nostrils and mouth on using crayons, oil pastels, colored pencils or markers.

Glue the snout onto to the paper plate head. For long-faced animals such as giraffes, horses, cows or goats, get your kids to paste the snouts lower and jutting out of the plate. This would elongate the animal face.

Kids can add other additional details to make the animal paper plate look more realistic. For example, this giraffe gets a pair of horns by using a craft stick that has been cut in half. Help your child to glue them at the back of the paper plate. Kids can colour or paint the craft sticks before gluing on circles cut out of construction paper at the tips of the horns.

This craft can also be used to learn about the similarities and differences of animals belonging to the same family or classification

Good luck and a happy trying! Visit First Palette for more animal paper plate ideas.