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20 Paper Plate Crafts for Toddlers to 8 Year Olds
Try 20 paper plate crafts with clear steps, suggested ages and toddler jobs, from animals and masks to a tambourine and weather wheel.
What can you make from a paper plate?
Paper plate crafts can be as simple as a spotty ladybird or as involved as a weather wheel. Below are 20 ideas, including paper plate animals, masks and a homemade tambourine. Each has a suggested age, instructions you can follow without a template, and a job a toddler can take charge of beside you.
What needs preparing before they start?
Put out paper plates, crayons, coloured paper, card, glue and tape. Keep scissors with you for preparation; paint is optional. Start with whichever picture appeals, using the age labels as suggestions for the version described, not milestones. Adults prepare the cut shapes for toddlers.
- No cutting, Start with...: Ladybird or pizza; Prepare first: Whole plates
- A shared project, Start with...: Rainbow and watermelon; Prepare first: Halved plates
- Something to use afterwards, Start with...: Mask or weather wheel; Prepare first: Card and crayons
A safety note: stay alongside younger children. Scouts advises supervising scissors and glue and storing sharp tools out of reach. Draw eyes instead of adding beads or buttons: the NHS warns that small objects can cause choking. Keep loose decorations and fillings out of reach of young children and any older child who still puts objects in their mouth. For the shaker in item 18, an adult handles assembly, checks the seam before each use and supervises playing. Put it away from younger children afterwards, and stop using it if it splits or the tape loosens.
Which of these 20 will you make?
The first crafts use whole plates, followed by halves and shapes to assemble. The final projects become things to play with or use. Every toddler job is a part they can take charge of while you're beside them; you can finish the fiddly bits afterwards.
1. Spotty ladybird
Turn a whole plate into a ladybird with a red body and black head. Draw a line down the middle, then add spots on either side. Say, "Put the spots wherever you like." There's no cutting or assembly to finish.
Suggested age: 2 to 4. Toddler job: draw the spots.
2. Swirly snail
The plate becomes a snail's shell. Draw a spiral from the middle outwards, then colour around it. An adult cuts a long paper body with an upright head and glues the shell over its back. Give your snail a name.
Suggested age: 2 to 4. Toddler job: colour the shell.
3. Paper-maned lion
Draw a lion's face in the plate's centre. Glue broad orange and yellow paper strips around the rim, pointing outwards like sunshine. Say, "Give your lion a very shaggy mane." Use torn strips if you don't want to cut them.
Suggested age: 3 to 5. Toddler job: press down the mane.
4. Pretend pizza
Colour the plate red inside a brown crust. Add torn yellow paper for cheese and large paper shapes for toppings. Say, "What shall we put on your pizza?" Leave it whole for a pretend café, with your child taking orders.
Suggested age: 2 to 4. Toddler job: choose and place toppings.
5. Rainbow half-circle
An adult cuts a plate in half. Draw coloured arches following the curved edge, working towards the straight side. Glue broad white paper clouds over the ends. Each half becomes a rainbow, so there's a spare for somebody joining in.
Suggested age: 3 to 5. Toddler job: colour between the arches.
6. Watermelon slice
Use half a plate as a pretend watermelon slice. Colour the curved rim green and the middle pink or red, then draw black seeds. Say, "Make yours as spotty as you like." Add it to a paper picnic with the pizza.
Suggested age: 2 to 4. Toddler job: make the seed marks.
7. Fringed hedgehog
Colour half a plate brown. Draw a face at one end of the straight edge, then snip short cuts into the curved rim for prickles. Stop each cut well before the centre. Your hedgehog can join a woodland picture.
Suggested age: 4 to 6. Toddler job: colour before the cutting.
8. Paper-strip jellyfish
Use half a plate for the jellyfish's rounded top. Tape broad paper strips behind the straight edge so they hang down. Draw a face and wiggle it through an imaginary sea. Fold the strips into zigzags for a different shape.
Suggested age: 3 to 5. Toddler job: decorate the plate.
9. Patterned umbrella
Turn half a plate into an umbrella by adding a large J-shaped card handle beneath its straight edge. Cover the canopy with dots, stripes or squiggles. Glue it onto a larger sheet and draw the rainy scene around it.
Suggested age: 3 to 5. Toddler job: make the canopy patterns.
10. Triangle-tail fish
An adult cuts a triangular wedge from a whole plate for the mouth. Tape that same wedge to the opposite edge, point touching the plate, to make a tail. Draw an eye and add colourful scales. Nothing needs a separate template.
Suggested age: 3 to 5. Toddler job: colour the scales.
11. Patchwork turtle
Cover a whole plate with large green paper patches to make a shell. Add a paper oval head, 4 broad feet and a little tail, gluing their ends underneath. Draw the face, then choose a name for your pond resident.
Suggested age: 3 to 5. Toddler job: press patches onto glue.
12. Butterfly wings
Cut a plate in half and place the halves with their curved edges facing each other. Glue a broad card body across the join. Draw matching patterns on the wings, or give each a different design. Add antennae with a pen.
Suggested age: 4 to 6. Toddler job: decorate a wing.
13. Folded owl
Fold the sides of a plate inwards for wings, then fold the top down for the head. Draw large eyes and a triangular beak on the flap. Add feather marks to the wings. Try a sleepy owl or a wide-eyed one.
Suggested age: 5 to 8. Toddler job: colour before folding.
14. Concertina-legged crab
Colour half a plate red or orange. Fold broad paper strips backwards and forwards, then tape them behind the plate as legs. Add paper claws above and draw the eyes. Say, "Shall we give this crab long legs or short ones?"
Suggested age: 4 to 6. Toddler job: colour the body.
15. Long-eared rabbit
Use a whole plate for a rabbit's face. Add 2 long card ears, gluing their lower ends behind the top edge. Draw eyes, a nose, whiskers and teeth. Colour inside the ears, then let the rabbit join a make-believe conversation.
Suggested age: 3 to 5. Toddler job: colour the ears.
16. Face-frame mask
An adult cuts out the plate's centre, leaving a broad ring. Decorate it with card ears and paper fur or feathers. Hold the rim below your chin with your face in the opening. Choose an animal, or invent a creature.
Suggested age: 4 to 6. Toddler job: decorate the ring.
17. Pointy crown
Turn the plate upside down and draw 6 pizza-slice sections on the back. An adult cuts from the centre along their dividing lines, leaving an uncut border about 2.5 cm wide all the way round. Fold each triangular point upwards along its base and decorate. Crown a soft toy if the opening doesn't fit your child.
Suggested age: 5 to 8. Toddler job: colour before the cuts.
18. Shaker-style tambourine
Fold a plate in half for a shaker-style tambourine. Colour the outside. Check known allergies first; skip this craft if anyone taking part has a lentil allergy. An adult adds a spoonful of dried lentils, staples the curved edges closed, then covers the entire seam with strong tape. Shake along to a song.
Suggested age: 6 to 8. Toddler job: decorate a separate, empty plate.
19. Weather wheel without a pin
Divide a plate into 4 sections for sun, rain, cloud and snow pictures. Lay it flat on larger card with an arrow drawn above the rim, pointing inwards. Turn the whole plate until today's weather meets the arrow. Nothing needs fastening.
Suggested age: 5 to 8. Toddler job: colour the weather pictures.
20. Little story stage
A whole plate becomes an island, garden or moon. Draw the setting, then cut characters from card, leaving a flap at each base. Fold the flaps back and tape them down to stand the figures up. Ask, "Who lives here?"
Suggested age: 5 to 8. Toddler job: colour the setting.
How can siblings share the making without taking over?
Give siblings a shared scene but separate pieces to make. A younger child can choose colours and decorate while an older child adds cut shapes. Keep the finished crafts on the table for a story or pretend shop, so making leads somewhere without needing another project.
- An underwater afternoon: pair a fish with a jellyfish. For example, a toddler decorates the bodies while an older sibling folds the paper strips. Move them across a blue sheet of paper and take turns deciding where they swim.
- A paper café: combine pizza and watermelon. One child arranges toppings while another draws a menu. Use a spare plate for taking orders, then swap who serves and who sits at the table.
For another activity between making and teatime, choose from our rainy day ideas for home.
Once your paper animals have had their story, you could follow with a movement activity. Explore Yogi-Me's mats, with 15 numbered poses laser-engraved into the surface for ages 3 to 8.
What if the plate never becomes an animal?
Let your child change the plan, or leave it. Offer an undecorated plate without announcing what it has to become, and sit alongside with your own paper. If they want to colour the back, make a purple lion or stop after a few marks, that's enough.
England's Department for Education guidance on creative materials recommends letting children choose what to use. At home, that might mean a crayon and a plain plate rather than the whole craft box.
They can also tell the story while you make. If they'd prefer something else entirely, browse our activities for 3 year olds.
Frequently asked questions
What are the easiest paper plate crafts for toddlers?
Start with the ladybird, snail or pretend pizza. Offer a plate and crayons, or spread the glue yourself and let your child place large paper shapes. Their part can stop there. You can add the face or assemble the animal afterwards, without asking them to copy a finished example.
Can you make paper plate crafts without paint?
Yes. Use crayons for faces, spots, rainbow bands and patterns, then add coloured paper where you want larger blocks of colour. The ladybird, pizza and snail all work this way. Choose glue or tape for the paper pieces, and put each finished craft aside until any glue has dried.
Do you need a printable template?
No. Use the plate's circle as your starting shape. A straight cut makes halves for rainbows, umbrellas and jellyfish; a triangle cut from the fish becomes its tail. Draw extra ears, feet and handles on scrap paper first, then adjust them against the plate before cutting.
Which paper plate crafts suit children aged 6 to 8?
Try the weather wheel, folded owl, crown or story stage. Offer the basic shape, then let your child choose the details: extra weather symbols, patterned feathers, a royal name or scenery for a story. The age labels are suggestions for choosing a project, not a checklist of what children should manage.
