We have been having some fun making crafts with paper plates. Our latest is a Pond Plate. We made one with a lily pad and frog, but this pond plate is versatile. Create the pond then decorate it as you wish with cattails, an alligator, fish, frogs and lily pads, whatever you wish!
This project is a really simple one and can be used to help teach what goes in a pond as well as word-color recognition and painting skills. It is a great project for spring and summer!
What You Need
- Paper plate
- Blue and green marker
- Paintbrush
- Blue and green paint (I used acrylic)
- Green construction paper
- Scissors
- Green pipe cleaner
- Green pompom
- Googly eyes (2)
- Pink pipe cleaner
- Glue (you can use school/craft glue, fabric glue, or hot glue)
- Fuzzy pompom/mini fabric flower
Directions
1. Draw a line down the center of the plate then label the top “green” with the green marker and the bottom “blue” with the blue marker.
2. Have your child paint green on the green half and blue on the blue half.
3. Cut out a lily pad from the green construction paper. You can do this if your child cannot use scissors yet or use it as a cutting exercise. Set it on the plate.
4. Twist a green pipe cleaner into a circle then crimp the circle to make little arms and legs (sort of an “h” shape.)
5. Add glue to the four corners pointing inwards and place the green pompom on top.
6. Glue on two googly eyes to the front of the frog.
7. Cut a small piece of pink pipe cleaner and curl it to make a tongue. Glue it into the frog’s mouth area. Let all the glue dry.
8. Fold the plate in half so it sits open at a right angle.
9. Glue a spiky pompom or a fabric flower onto the lily pad to make the water lily flower.
Bonus tip: As I mentioned earlier, you can do so much more with this pond than a frog with a lily pad. Try switching out the frog with paper cutouts of fish (like koi), rubber ducks, adding tall grass and cattails along the crease, or making a paper/popsicle stick boat to sit on top.
You May Also Like
- DIY GLOW-IN-THE-DARK Paper Plate Flying Saucer
- DIY Paper Plate Love Bug
- Glowing Monster/Alien Pendant
- A Rainbow of Ways to Teach Colors
- DIY Biplane-Inspired Cupcakes
- Bunny Rabbit String Cheese Wrappers
-What will be on your pond?
That is very cute! It makes a good Spring Break craft project.
Thank you, Brenda! 🙂
What an adorable project!! I am going to do it with my daughter this weekend!!
Michelle S.
Thank you, Michelle! Let me know how it turns out!
Cute! My son loves crafts so this little project will be perfect for him!!!
Thank you, Dana! If you try it, let me know how it turns out.
We are going to try this with our daughter. This looks pretty easy, she will really enjoy manipulating the different objects like pipe cleaners and pom poms.
Wonderful! I really hope she enjoys it. Let me know how it turns out!
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