Children love to create. As soon as they can wrap their precious little fingers around a crayon or pencil they are scribbling away on anything even your walls. There is something in the nature of human beings that drives us to create something with our own two hands. It can be hard for younger children to do many of the crafts out there as they do not have enough coordination just yet. There are some simple things that they will love. Find some paper plate craft ideas so they can be creative without being frustrated by the limitations of what they can do at a young age.
One paper plate craft idea that toddlers will love would be to create a paper plate picture of themselves. Babies and toddlers are fascinated with faces and expressions, and they will love to create what they think of as a self portrait of themselves. You can use whatever items you feel they can use safely when you assist them with this project. Think about yarn for hair, colored pencils to draw their face, and perhaps some other glue-on items that they can use to construct their version of their own face.
Children also like to make noise. Humans are fascinated with music from birth on throughout life, and children love to make their own music even if it sounds like noise to you. A simple paper plate craft that you can do with your child would be to decorate the bottom sides of two plates in any way that they want. You can allow them to color, or you can attach dangling items like feathers and yarn to make these more festive and visually stimulating for them. Once they are done, plate the plates together bottoms out and fill the inside with a quarter cup of beans. Seal the outside along the outer rims of the plates with a strong glue or closely spaced staples and they have their very own music maker.
You could create a paper plate craft to help with a bigger craft. Ask your child to draw out something in the center of the plate. Once they are done, carefully cut out the shape so that you have a hole in the shape of their drawing. You can then show them how to hold the plate over a piece of paper carefully. Then show them how to apply paint or marker to make the shape on the paper once the plate is lifted. If you are skilled with an razor blade knife, you can make more intricate patterns for them. It seems like a simple craft for them, but they will love it.
As you do a paper plate craft with your child, you can probably come up with some ideas on your own. Most of these are simple yet fun for younger minds. Remember that you can use paper, or perhaps you find that the Styrofoam versions of paper plates are better for some crafts because they are a bit sturdier. Your children are going to go on to bigger and more intricate crafts as they grow, but you will always remember the fun you had doing a simple paper plate craft with them on a rainy afternoon.
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