Lil' Miss Smarty Pants was created to share activities (mostly crafts!!) you can do with your own kids or in a teaching setting...almost all of the activities use simple everyday items that are found in most homes with kiddos. We have spent a lot of time looking for fun activities that also have teaching/learning value, and several years trying them out with our preK class. Here are our favorites!!
Showing posts with label paper plates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paper plates. Show all posts

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Paper Plate Watermelon Craft

Finishing up our unit of the letter W this week...with a darling and fun watermelon craft that also works on those fine motor skills that are so important in PreK age kids.  


We just use our paper cutter to cut squares (big ones) out of green and red construction paper, and much smaller black squares for the seeds.  


And cut your paper plates in half...


First step...glue the green rind on the outer edge of the plate...


...then the red in the middle.  When done, they can glue random black seeds over the red paper.


Voila.  Really one of the cutest paper plate crafts.





Monday, January 14, 2013

Easy "T" is for Turtle


So, one of the little boys we have had in our class LOVES to make "pets."  Every time we make an animal of any kind he calls it his pet and talks all about how he's going to take it home and play with it.  He had a blast with this cutie...


We used a paper bowl and painted it green ahead of time, because our main goal for this one was the fine motor skills it was going to take to glue the dried peas onto Tiny Tim's back.  But you could just as easily let the kids color or paint it themselves if you wanted to do it differently.

The rest of the activity is self explanatory...cut some green legs and a head out of construction paper, rectangle shaped with rounded corners.  Glue on googly eyes and dried peas.

One of the kids favorite songs to sing is Tiny Tim...

"I had a little turtle, his name was Tiny Tim.
I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water...
He ate up all the soap...
He tried to eat the bathtub...
But it wouldn't go down his throat!!"

(This next part is their FAVORITE!!!)

{hand actions:  cup your hands into a small ball or bubble and move your hands outward with each "bubble"}

"Bubble, bubble, bubble...
Bubble, bubble, bubble...
Bubble, bubble, bubble...
Bubble, bubble....POP!!"

They all break into fits of laughter...they love it!!

CLICK this link for a YouTube video of a little girl singing it...I don't know her (LOL) but it will give you an idea of the tune!!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Penguins live at the SOUTH POLE...

It's kinda funny that we see penguins in Christmas movies with the reindeer and polar bears and Santa...because penguins don't actually live at the North Pole!  But they are still a fun animal to talk about and make cute things of with the Prek kids!


To make this funny paper plate penguin you'll need:


Glue them together like this:


Here's a fun little penguin counting song to sing while you play with your penguins:

Penguin's First Swim

Ten little penguins all in a line
One jumps in, and now there are nine.
Nine little penguins, how they hesitate-
One tumbles in, and now there are eight.
Eight little penguins pushin' and shovin'
One slides in, and now there are seven.
Seven little penguins, scarcely more than chicks-
One slips in, and now there are six.
Six little penguins can't decide to dive-
One falls in, and now there are five.
Five little penguins huddle on the shore-
One flops in, and now there are four.
Four little penguins fidget fearfully-
One hops in, and now there are three.
Three little penguins wonder what to do-
One rolls in, and now there are two....
Two little penguins missing all the fun-
They both leap in, and now there are.....
Ten little penguins, brave as they can be,
Splashing in the waves of the salty southern sea.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Here comes Santa Claus!

And once you have made reindeer...Santa can't be far behind!!

These paper plate Santa's were so fun and the kids loved them.

You are going to need to have paper plates (just the cheap, white ones), cotton balls, googly eyes, and construction paper: a peach colored circle for his face, a red Santa-hat shape, a pink nose, and two black circles to go behind the googly eyes.


Glue the peach circle onto the plate and then glue the Santa hat shape to the top of the plate.  Glue on the eyes and the nose, and the googly eyes.  Now use the cotton balls to make Santa's beard, mustache and hat trim.


The kids love to have their very own decorations for Christmas to put up in their house!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Once there was a Snowman...

Paper plate crafts rock again!!  

For this fun Snowman craft, you will need this for each kiddo:
a paper plate
a pipe cleaner 
construction paper cut into circles for eyes, a long triangle for a carrot nose, and lots of little squares for the mouth
2 pom poms



Using their sweet little fingers, they glue the eyes, nose and mouth on the plate first.



Then they glue the pom pom/pipe cleaner ear muffs on to the freezing cold snowman ears...



...and you've got the cutest little snowman head with warm ears ever.  Just be careful he doesn't get too warm, he may melt!

Friday, October 26, 2012

More Monsters than you know what to do with...

Even more fun than toilet paper rolls is paper plates.
And, kids love masks....
and pretend.

So let's pretend we're monsters!


Ahead of time, you need to paint the bottom portion of the plate green.
Cut out construction paper shapes:  green triangle spikes, yellow round eyes, white oval mouth/teeth and red zigzags for the inside of the white...to show their teeth!
First turn the paper plates right side up (so the green is on the table).  And glue the green triangles all around the edges for his spikes.  Then turn it over and glue on the eyes and mouth/teeth, and finish it off with some googly eyes in the center of the yellow.


When the glue dries, make sure they have some time to growl at  each other with their monster faces on!!