Paper Plate Lion Craft for Kids
This easy paper plate lion craft with paint and googly eyes is a simple craft to add to any preschool unit with animals or lions. Using scissors, you can cut a mane for your child or allow them to practice their cutting skills.
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What’s not to love about a paper plate craft? You can make virtually anything, and Pinterest is full of cute animal paper plate craft ideas. When it came time to choosing which one to make for our animal habitats unit, my son picked a lion with no hesitation.
I looked online, and what would you know – there are a ton of variations of lion paper plate crafts.
Can you guess which one I decided to make?
A simple, easy one using the materials I already had at home!
There are other variations using tissue paper, construction paper, yarn, pipe cleaners, and various other materials. However, seeing as we were already making a craft in this unit that allowed my son to explore shapes and glue, I decided to go with paint and scissor skills for this one.
WHILE YOU’RE PLANNING YOUR ANIMAL HABITATS THEME:
- Check out my Animal Habitats Unit here. (Use code HABITAT25 for 25% off) If you join my Preschool Program Membership, you’ll get a major discount on all past Unit Studies, and 2 brand new units included each month!
- Here are 25 Animal Activities for your Preschooler’s Habitat theme!
- Here’s a list of Animal Books for your Animal Habitat Unit Study.
- Here are 25 Animal Habitat Crafts for your Preschooler
- Here’s a list of 16 Fun & Delicious Animal-Themed Snacks for your Kids
Animal Habitat Activities & Crafts We’ve Done at the Moore Homestead:
- How to Make a Paper Bag Nest
- Make a Bear Cave Craft
- How to Make a Rainforest Terrarium with Kids
- Toilet Paper Roll Bird Feeders
- Animal Habitat Invitation to Play
- Owl Paper Bag Puppet Craft for Kids
- Desert Sensory Bin
- Arctic Sensory Bin
- Forest Sensory Bin
- Ocean Sensory Bin
Animal Habitat Facts for your Preschooler:
For tips on planning your homeschool preschool year, including curriculum recommendations, check out this article.
Join the Homeschooling Preschoolers Facebook Page! There are free resources available, and it’s the perfect way to connect with other families!
Lion Paper Plate Craft
Start by cutting the edges of the paper plate like a “mane.” You could also do this after painting, but you’ll have to wait for it to dry, of course. We didn’t have time for that, so we went ahead and cut before.
I allowed him to attempt cutting the mane himself, but he wanted me to do most of it. This will depend on your child’s age and fine motor skills, but these are the safety scissors I ordered on Amazon.
Next, paint the middle part of the plate a yellow or light golden color, and the edges a brown or orange color.
You can guide your child as much as you like, but I’ve found that my son is going through a phase where he wants to copy my art as closely as possible. Doing your paper plate lions together is great for bonding and communication, and providing the paint and materials freely is great for developing artistic expression and freedom of choice.
Once the paint dries, use school glue to glue on googly eyes, and paint or a marker to draw on a nose and mouth. Ta-da! You now have a cute paper plate lion to display!
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