Full disclosure. I am about to openly confess and discuss my love for paper plates. But no judgement please, because I’m fairly certain you’ll want to join me in my love affair after reading this post. Especially if you have little ones at home. 🤗❤️😍

Paper plates have SO many uses in the world of toddler. They come in different colors, different sizes, different textures….ahh the list goes on and on. They are simply the perfect blank canvas for so many crafts, projects and play.

Since we couldn’t possibly do every single paper plate craft ever known to man in just one week, we focused on animals first.

First up, a very sparkly and speckled frog (sitting on a hollow log) to go along with my boys’ favorite nursery rhyme.

My toddler LOVED having his hands traced and later gluing them onto his new froggy friend.  Sparkly foam circles and googly eyes completed the craft. Easy peasy.  🐸

Mr. Frog quickly turned into a fun, interactive prop while we sang our favorite finger play song.

5 Little Speckled Frogs

Five little speckled frogs
Sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs.
YUM! YUM!
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Now there are four green speckled frogs!
GLUB! GLUB!

Four little speckled frogs
Sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs.
YUM! YUM!
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Now there are three green speckled frogs!
GLUB! GLUB!

Three little speckled frogs
Sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs.
YUM! YUM!
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Now there are two green speckled frogs!
GLUB! GLUB!

Two little speckled frogs
Sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs.
YUM! YUM!
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Now there is one green speckled frog!
GLUB! GLUB!

One little speckled frog
Sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs.
YUM! YUM!
He jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Now there are no green speckled frogs!

Next up, Turtles! We tried this one out three different ways (one of which used a paper bowl instead of a paper plate…mind blown). Before jumping right into the craft itself, we read Turtle Splash! by Cathryn Falwell.  An awesome children’s book about numbers and counting at the pond and a perfect pairing to our turtle project.

 

For the turtle shell, we glued a paper bowl (turned upside down) onto a paper plate. We then added green tissue paper squares and four little legs, a head and a tail all cut from sheets of yellow foam. TIP: Gluing is an awesome fine motor activity but can also be a bit tricky too. Here are a few variations for different ages/skill levels if your little one has trouble manipulating the tissue paper. Try dot paints to decorate the turtle shell, or try foam square pieces instead of tissue paper (much easier to pick up, grab and glue) 🐢

Last up for this week (since March is slipping away),  it’s #InLikeALion #OutLikeALamb! For our handsome Mr. Lion, we painted a paper plate with orange paint first, waited for it to dry and then dressed up his mane with orange/yellow paper strips. The strips were perfect cutting practice for my little guy and a great introduction to early scissor work. We also added two eyes, a nose and a mouth…ROAR!

Our little lamb was similar, but used a paper plate cut in half. We also skipped the paint this time around and instead I traced a lamb face on black construction paper. My son glued cotton balls on the sides to resemble a super soft, woolly coat. Don’t forget the googly eyes and a cute little mouth and nose!

What fun animals have you crafted out of a paper plate? The possibilities are endless. Let your child’s imagination soar! Happy crafting, all!