sunday kids' craft: fun with paper plates

"I never knew how much fun paper plates could be!"

(Quote of the day exclaimed by Peanut - my oldest.)

I have not posted a Sunday kids' craft in weeks, maybe even months.  We've been spending most of our Sunday time outdoors now that the weather is nice, and Sunday crafting has taken a backseat.  But today we took husband/daddy out for lunch (love him), and when we got home we had about 45 minutes until rest time.  I hate to go outside and play right before rest time because . . . well, 45 minutes of running around only gets my girls too jazzed to rest.  I looked around in the craft cupboard for an impromptu craft - pulled out paper plates, paint markers, scissors and glue.  Instant kids' craft. 

We've all seen those paper plate fish everywhere lately.  They are soooo cute!  The minute I said, "Let's make some fish," my oldest daughter cheered and my youngest said, "NO!  I wanna make an owl!"  That sums their personalities up to a tee.  Peanut is always up for whatever I suggest.  Monkey is never up for anything I suggest.  So I figured that if you can make fish with paper plates, then certainly you can make owls.  In fact, I'm pretty sure you can probably make just about any animal you want to out of paper plates.  I also made this a teachable moment for my youngest - yes, I'm THAT mom (groan).  We are still working on her shape recognition, so we talked a lot about triangles and circles as we cut, colored and glued.

We ended up with two fish, an owl, a baby kitty and a peacock mask.    

My favorite part was when I looked over and my oldest daughter was writing the word "CAT" on her little kitty. She looked up and said, "just so people will know this is supposed to be a cat".  :)

And I was so proud of Peanut's creativity when she saw the paper plate we were using to cut the shapes out of and said, "Mom, this could totally be a peacock mask!"  (Okay, when did she start talking like a teenager?)

So we made a peacock mask.  What a wonderful imagination!

So the next time you need an impromptu craft or a lesson on shapes, grab some paper plates, paint markers, scissors, glue and . . .

craft on!