You'll have tons of fun making this Creative Hands Paper Plate Caterpillar!

Related Pages: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities and Lesson Plan, Recycled Caterpillar Craft

Paper Plate Caterpillar Materials List

1 small paper plate

1 green foam sheet (5 ½ inches x 8 ½ inches)

1 red foam sheet (5 ½ inches x 8 ½ inches)

1 yellow foam sheet (5 ½ inches x 8 ½ inches)

1 orange foam sheet (5 ½ inches x 8 ½ inches)

2 small red poms (50 mm)

1 small yellow pom (50 mm)

2 googly eyes (1/2 inch)

1 bottle craft foam glue

1 bottle blue acrylic paint

1 paintbrush

1 hole puncher

1 scissors

1 pencil

paper towels or napkins

We love working regular household items like paper plates into projects.

How to Make this Paper Plate Caterpillar Craft

Lay down the paper towels and paint the top of the paper plate blue. Let it dry for a few hours.

Projects that start off with painting are always fun!

Using the caterpillar template, trace and cut out six or seven body parts from the paper plate for your caterpillar, depending on how long you want your critter to be. Glue the parts together as shown. Let dry.

Make sure you put down enough napkins or paper towels. Paint can easily get messy.

Using the template, trace and cut out six or seven pairs of legs in the orange foam.

If you need help, ask an adult to cut out the legs for you.

Take the green, red and yellow foam sheets and punch out five to seven holes each, depending on how you want to decorate your caterpillar. Start gluing the foam dots to your caterpillar and glue the legs underneath. TIP: Keep paper towel scraps nearby in case you need to wipe away extra glue.

Give the caterpillar body enough time to dry before you start adding embellishments.

With the center of the plate—that should be the only part left over—cut out a small head or use the template. Decorate the head with 2 googly eyes, a small yellow pom for the nose and a red foam smile for the mouth. For the mouth, you also can use the template.

If you need help, ask an adult to cut out the mouth.

Using the template, trace and cut out the antenna in orange foam. Glue 2 small red poms to each end. Glue the antenna under the head. Then glue the head to the body and let dry.

Your Paper Plate Caterpillar is almost complete!

Now your Paper Plate Caterpillar Craft is finished! What other critter could you make out of paper plates?

Related Pages: St. Patrick’s Day Coloring Pages, St. Patrick’s Day Garland, St. Patrick’s Day Printable Pinwheels

What you need for your own leprechaun hat to wear on St. Patrick’s Day:

• Paper bowl
• Paint
• Paintbrush
• Pipecleaner
• Hole punch
• String (we used the elastic kind for a better fit)

Craft supplies needed for the leprechaun hat.

Let your kiddo paint the outside of the bowl green.  Turn it upside down, then use your hole punch to place a hole in the “brim” of the hat above the ear on each side.

Make holes to attach your elastic string.

Tie the ends of your string through each hole, leaving enough slack to go under your child's chin.

Next, we made a shamrock out of a pipecleaner.  Just bend it around like we’ve done here.

Pipecleaner shamrock for St. Patrick's Day.

Wrap the end of the shamrock through one of the holes you already made.  We did a little “fancier” version, as well by wrapping one pipecleaner around a pencil to make it curly and then adding our shamrock to the top.

More shamrock-y goodness.

Here are the finished products:

She's all ready for the St. Patrick's Day parade.

Ooh, fancy!

Related Pages: Printable Olympics bingo, Olympics coloring pages, Olympics kids activities

Olympics Crafts for Kids

Here are four Summer Olympic and Winter Olympic crafts for all Olympic Games:

Olympic Torch Kids Craft	Paper Plate Olympic Rings Craft	Olympic Medals Craft	Olympic Flags Craft for Kids

Vancouver 2010 Olympics Crafts

Have you checked out yet the absolutely adorable Vancouver Olympics Mascots site? Their names are Miga, Quatchi and Sumi, and they are so freaking cute I can hardly stand it!

Vancouver Olympics Craft - Sumi Paper Craft	Vancouver Olympics Craft - Quatchi Paper Craft	Vancouver Olympics Craft - Miga Paper Craft	First Nations Totem Pole Craft

Olympics Party Game

Check out our free winter Olympics bingo game over at Classroom Jr.!

More Olympics Printables

Olympic Medal Count Worksheet

Olympic Word Search

Printable Training Journal

Vancouver Printables and Olympics Activities

Here’s a really cute Christmas craft of a paper plate penguin that is easy enough for preschoolers to make.

Paper Plate Penguin Preschool Craft

What You Need to Make a Paper Plate Penguin:

• Two paper plates
• Scissors
• Glue
• Orange and black paint, crayons or markers
• Googly eyes (optional)

How to Make a Paper Plate Penguin:

1. Cut up a paper plate as shown. This craft uses every piece you cut out so don’t throw anything away!

Paper plate penguin craft template

2. Paint the two wings black and the three triangles orange.

3. Paint a black v-shaped ‘hairline’ on the penguin’s head as shown.

4. After the paint has dried, glue the two wings onto the top rim of second paper plate, the big orange triangle onto the penguin face for it’s beak, and the two small orange triangles onto the bottom rim of the plate for it’s feet.

5. Glue two googly eyes above the penguin’s beak, or just color them onto the face if you don’t have any googly eyes laying around.

For more preschool Christmas crafts, try these easy Christmas handprint crafts, or the penguin coloring page in this set of winter bird coloring pages.