Friday, June 21, 2013

Paper Plate Animal Masks #CraftForKids

It rained on and off here this last week and I decided to try something simple for our kid friendly craft project; we made paper plate pets. This is essentially simple masks made out of paper plates and paint. Regardless of how simple the concept is, this project entertained my children for hours… yes I said HOURS!

These paper plate pets were really simple to make and the kids have already requested to do this activity again. I told my son that he was only limited by his imagination; he could make whatever he wanted. He ran with this idea.

How to make paper plate animal masks


What you need:
Paper Plates
Scissors
Tempura Paint {washable}
Paint Brushes/Sponges

How to Make It:
Take the paper plates and cut out eye holes. {If your child is old enough and can use scissors this is a great activity for them to work on their fine motor skills}
Make little paint pallets for the kids and hand them paint brushes/sponges.
Let the kids paint!
Once the masks are painted set aside for about 1-2 hours to dry.
Once masks are dry, let the kids pick out masks to wear and let their imaginations run wild!

Making Paper Plate Pet Masks

We spent about 2 hours cutting and painting paper plate masks and then we spent a couple hours playing with them in the afternoon once they we dry. My oldest son who can be shy about his artistic ability really embraced this activity with enthusiasm. He made personality masks {Silly Man, Happy Man, Scary Man} instead of paper plate pets… but I was just happy that he wanted to do this all on his own – as he usually asks the adult nearby to “help” create something for him.

I sat down with the kids and created masks based on their requests. These “mom made” masks are my youngest sons favorite ones to play with, but my older son would rather play with the masks he made – which I am very happy about {this tells me that he thinks his creations are just as good if not better than moms… that he values his work}.

This was some of the most fun I have ever had painting with my kids. They really enjoyed creating masks and had an even better time playing with the end products! So often we paint something and then never look at it again. I really liked that the kids spent a long time working on this product and then came back to it once it was finished to play with some more.

Playing with the Cat Paper Plate MaskPlaying with the Pig Paper Plate Mask

Have you made masks with your children, if so what did you use?

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