Material: Scissors

Paper Plate Web

A 5-year-old child practices fine motor skills by threading yarn through a paper plate ring to create a spider web craft at a kitchen table.

In this activity, pipe cleaners are optional.

Help the child to cut out a large circle from the center of the paper plate, leaving about 1-inch from the edge, and creating an outer ring.
Ask the child to punch holes all around the outer ring.

Give the child a long piece of yarn and instruct him to string the yarn through the holes he punched. Have the child string the yarn from one hole to the next going back and forth to form a web.

On the construction paper (preferably black or gray), draw a medium size oval for the spider’s body and a smaller size circle for the spider’s head. Let the child cut out the shapes you drew to make a spider. You can also ask the child to draw a spider and cut it out.

If you are using pipe cleaners, have the child punch 3 holes on each side of the oval (the spider’s body) and place a small piece of pipe cleaner in each hole (to form the spider’s legs).

Have the child glue the spider on the web or attach the spider to the web by banding the pipe cleaners onto the yarn.

Fun Jar

Use a large, empty, and clean jar for this activity.

Provide the child with pipe cleaners and/or straws and instruct him to insert the items through the holes on the jar’s lid.

You can ask the child to sort the items by color or size before placing them in the jar.

If using a jar that has holes and a small opening on the lid, you can use additional items to place through the opening, such as pom-poms, buttons, large beads, coins, etc.

The child can use tongs or tweezers to catch the items before dropping them through the large opening.

If you cannot find a spice jar, you can use a regular container and poke holes in the lid, using a hole-puncher or cut holes with scissors.

Easter Eggs Match

Cut the construction paper or regular piece of white paper into 6 or more rectangles/cards.

On each card, draw an oval (egg shape) with a line in the middle, to represent the top part of the egg and the bottom part.

Using crayons and marker that match the color of the Easter eggs you are using, color the eggs on the cards, using one color at the top part and a different color at the bottom part.

Present the cards and the “cracked” easter eggs to the child and instruct the child to put the eggs together by matching the colors as shown on the cards.

If using an egg carton, you can ask the child to arrange the matched eggs in the same order the cards are laid on the table.

Paper Bag Fish

Have the child crumple the newspapers into small paper balls.

Stuff the paper bag with the crumpled newspapers.

Use the yarn or a ribbon to tie a knot close to the edge of the open end to close the paper bag.

Ask the child to paint the filled paper bag using either a brush or cotton balls.

Glue large googly eyes.

For grading, you can ask the child to draw eyes on construction paper and cut/glue it onto the paper bag.

Lay a piece of yarn on the fish (below the eyes) to make a mouth. Use some glue to hold it in place.

To promote tactile perception, you can let the child finger paint the paper bag instead of using other media.

Hats for All

A young child at a kitchen table using scissors to cut out paper shapes for a DIY paper plate hat project.

Draw a line from the outside edge of the paper plate into the center.

On the construction paper, draw different shapes (note: some ideas for shapes your child can cut are red, blue, and white stripes, stars, or circles for 4th of July, hearts for Valentine’s day, or flowers for springtime).

Provide the child with a pair of scissors and ask him to first cut along the line you drew on the plate and then cut the different shapes you traced on the paper.

Overlap the edges of the paper plate to create a hat shape and staple them together.

Have the child glue the different cut out shapes on the hat.

Finally, help your child poke two holes on each side of the plate and put the lace through each hole.