December 15, 2011 3:04 am

Faigie

sewing on paper plates

 Paper plate crafts for kids is an often searched activity since paper plates are so readily available.

Parents and/ or educators  often whip out those paper plates for some quick art project when stuck without something more thought out.

As is the way we do things over here at eduart4kids, creative crafts is the way to. You can use paper plates but, don’t try to think exactly what they are going to make with it. You can make it a really free activity or have a basic idea, but no copycat crafts here.

When I say paper plates, please be aware that not everyone uses paper plates  when using throw away, disposable plates. Some of you may use plastic or even Styrofoam. They are  called paper plates the same way that tissues are still called kleenex in many places.

paper plat pocketbook

So for clarification, these activities are for REAL paper plates.Children however, should know that the plates are for a special art activity and not to use them indiscriminately whenever they feel the urge to cut or color.

In this post I have a few activities to do with paper plates. You can find tons more on Pinterest, but just be aware that most of them are copycat types of crafts.

The first one is the image I have at the top of this post. You can use a regular hole puncher but, in this case we had ones that punched different shapes. This child punched holes all around and then sewed some of the holes.

The second paper plate activity used the same idea but, made a pocketbook out of it and the third used other collage materials to make a face.

If you get into the habit of giving children various materials to create to their hearts content than paper plates can be one of those materials. You can give them different materials on different days to match up with the various size and style plates and see what they come up with.

Below are another 4 more structured ideas of how to make paper plate crafts with young children,

1-Spiral cutouts. Have the children color both sides of the paper plates.  If the children you are giving this activity to are little girls who can color endlessly then they will have no problem covering the entire plate on both sides with crayon.

You may want to give the children the option of using Washable Markers or even   Oil Pastels  as they will make the  plates much more vibrant.

If you encourage them to cover both sides, their spiral cutouts will be more colorful. But of course whatever they do is fine. Once their plates are all colored, you can give them scissors and have them start cutting around and around the paper plate in a spiral. (You may want to have them paint them. If you do that then you will have to wait for them to dry before cutting)

Younger children may need you to draw the spiral with a pencil so that they can follow. Once they are done they can see these spiral cutouts for mobile or decorations.

2-Paper plate Collage

The plates can be used as a background for a collaging activity.

Give the children circles to collage with to introduce them to that shape it may be interesting to see how they collage with circles onto their round plates. Of course, you can add other materials as well for a different activity. Then you can frame them on a rectangular piece of oaktag or an oaktag cut out in a circle shape.

3-Paper Plate Masks.

There are many holidays that children can make masks for. I would cut out holes of eyes before they decorate the masks and then have the children decorate the masks with various materials you have around the house.

Feathers, cotton balls, sequins, buttons are all good materials that can help the mask come to life. You can of course add markers to help them finish it off.When they are done you will need to staple elastic to the sides so the children can actually wear them.

4-Tissue paper stained glass

stained glass tissue paper with paper plates

For this activity you will have to give the children paper plates that have the middle already cut out. Even though we used styrofoam plates here, paper will be better for the stickiness of the contact paper.

Have the children decorate the plate as is. Then have them put a piece of clear contact on the back of the plate. They can cut or use pre cut pieces of tissue paper onto the contact paper and when they are done you will need to give them another piece of contact paper to close up the tissue paper.

You can then punch a hole for the plate to hang near a window or even on a tree.

If you wanted to do this for one of your fall craft projects then just make sure to use fall colors.

Just make sure that after the children color, collage or paint on these plates that they don’t use them for eating on. the art materials may be toxic.

It’s very tempting to use paper plates to make typical projects with them but, I guess if you are sold on my type of art, then you can overcome temptations.

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