Paper Plate Frog for Summer Crafting

During summer, kids are anxious to go outdoors to observe nature. Most children have seen a frog picture in books, but have they seen a real frog in its habitat? Your child will flip over this fun frog craft made with simple materials at home. It can even be manipulated like a puppet so the kiddos can make plenty of “ribbit” sounds with their frog project. Frogs are a perfect theme to get the youngsters thinking of the outdoors and participating in frog-acting games like leap frog and lily pad leapers. You’ll all have a hoppin’ good time!

Materials:

• Paper plate
• Green paint
• Paintbrush
• Construction paper
• Cotton balls or pom-poms
• Heavy-duty glue
• Wiggly eyes (optional)

Directions:

Step 1 – Prepare your work area for messy art. Your child will be painting and gluing with this craft, so spread newspapers on the table and floor. Wearing a smock or adult tee shirt will help protect your child’s clothing.

Step 2 – Invite your child to paint both sides of a paper plate (the paper kind, not a foam one) with green paint. Set this aside to dry.

Step 3 –In the meantime, draw and cut out four green legs from construction paper and a red forked tongue. Cutting on the lines of these shapes help to develop scissor skills in young children. The very youngest may need your help.

Step 4 – When the paper plate is dry, fold it in half. This makes the frog’s head/face and mouth.

Step 5 – Glue the four legs inside the folded area – one on each side and two at the bottom. Glue a red tongue inside the mouth.

Step 6 – On top of the folded plate is the frog’s head and face. Find two cotton balls or pom-poms and glue these as the frog’s eyeballs. You can then glue on round wiggly eyes in the middle of the balls or as a variation use a hole punch and make two small black circles from construction paper.

Step 7 – After all the parts are dry, the frog puppet is now ready to manipulate. Your child can use his hand to hold the frog puppet and move the mouth to open and close.

Think about using this frog puppet to enhance songs, rhymes, and just to imitate “froggie” sounds. As the saying goes, “It’s fun to be green if you know what I mean!”

Until next week,

Happy Parenting,

Tania :)

Photo courtesy of Tania Cowling, all rights reserved