This is a guest post for Learn with Play at Home written by the lovely Kate from The Craft Train. For more of their awesome ideas, be sure to check out their site. Enjoy, Debs :)
5
Paper Plate-a-sauruses with templates
Here’s
an activity for all the dinosaur-loving kids out there. These paper
plate-a-sauruses are based on the real species and all feature a colourful
paper plate body with a paper cut-out head, legs and tail.
They can help kids
learn the real names of the dinosaurs and also have a fun, messy art and craft
element to them.
My friend’s 5 year old boy tested this idea out for me and
absolutely LOVED the dinosaurs he made (a T-rex and a Stegosaurus), and
suggested next time we could make a Pterodactyl and a Diplodocus.
I’ve gone one
better and created a Triceratops as well, so you have 5 dinosaur templates to
choose from that you can make with your kids. My girls had fun making these
too.
You
will need:
•
Paper plates
•
Coloured heavy paper stock for your dinosaur templates (at the bottom of the post)
•
Scissors and a hole punch (or googly eyes if you prefer)
•
Items to decorate your paper plates with. You can use anything you like, but we
used paints and sponge stamps for ours.
How
to:
Cut
some paper plates in half and decorate them. We used paints but for a less
messy option try pencils, textas, crayons or stickers.
My
kids loved stamping patterns with these sponge stamps, made by cutting simple shapes
from a kitchen sponge. They are sooo quick and easy to make.
Most
of the templates work best by painting the back of the paper plate, but for the
Pterodactyl the front side works best.
Decorating
the plates will keep them busy for a while …
Leave
the painted plate art to dry for an hour or two.
Whilst
they are drying you can cut out the paper dinosaur shapes from the templates
below.
For best results print them straight on to the heavy coloured paper
stock.
The Diplodocus is the easiest shape for little hands to cut out if you
want your kids to do the cutting.
The other templates are quite intricate and
you will probably need to cut them out yourself.
Once
you have cut out the paper shapes staple them on to your dry paper plate.
Punch
a hole for the eye, or if you prefer stick on a googly eye
These
are the dinosaurs we made …
Templates
These
templates are designed to fit a standard dinner sized paper plate.
Click the links below to download your own copy of the dinosaur templates
They will open in a Google Doc.
Click on "File" in the top left and then choose "Download" from the drop down menu.
Save to your computer and print out as needed. Enjoy!
Thanks
for reading my guest post on the fabulous Learn With Play at Home.
For more fun
kids craft ideas visit my blog www.thecrafttrain.com
Kate Grono is a talented, crafty, graphic designing, art directing, busy mum of 2!
Look where else we are. Are you following along? :)
