Paper Plate Monsters

Laundry, dishes, grocery shopping…  Moms are always busy!

Wondering how to squeeze in a kids craft this week and still get all those chores done?

This Paper Plate Monster Craft is easy enough for the kids to work on by themselves while you get dinner ready or fold that basket of laundry.

Whether you’re looking for a craft to go with a book, or maybe Halloween crafts, kids love creating silly monsters.  

Preschoolers will also enjoy this Squiggle Monster craft idea, which is perfect for working on hand strength.  

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Paper Plate Monster Craft

Materials Needed: 

• Paper Plates
• Construction Paper
• Crayons/Markers
• Scissors
• Glue Sticks
• Other fun additions:  yarn, googly eyes, pom-poms, pipe cleaners, craft foam  (Tweak this list to fit your needs.)

The big round mouths on these monsters give them the silly and fun look that young kids love.  

To create the monster’s large mouth, use scissors to cut out the plate’s center portion before giving the plates out to young kids.  If you are crafting with older kids (kindergarten and up), they should be able to remove the plate’s center on their own.  

If you are crafting with toddlers, I suggest cutting out a variety of paper ears, horns, noses, and teeth ahead of time so they can choose pieces and glue them on as they like.  

Preschool-aged children and older can get creative and cut out their own pieces.  In fact, crafting like this is great scissor practice for preschoolers.

Preschool Monster Craft

Some kids will jump right into this craft, knowing exactly what they’d like to add to their paper plate monster.  That’s great!

Some kids may hesitate, waiting for instruction, or worrying that they may not make their monster “right.”  

If your child is struggling, you can brainstorm ideas together.

• “Do you think your monster needs horns?”
• “You can cut triangles out to glue on for teeth.”
• “How many eyes will he have?”

Sometimes kids just need a bit of help at the beginning before their creativity really kicks into gear on a craft.

These fun monsters make great Halloween crafts and decorations.

You could also easily glue craft sticks to the back of the plates and turn them into simple masks you can hold in front of your face for pretend play.  

Monster Writing

If you homeschool or teach in the classroom, you can even use your plate monster to inspire a variety of writing activities.  

Have kindergarten and first graders use them to work on paragraph skills.  

Start with a simple topic sentence together.  Add at least 3 detail sentences, and finish with a closing sentence.

“This is my monster.  It has 4 eyes.  It has sharp teeth.  It has a big mouth.  I like my monster.”

For older kids you could have them write a short story about their paper plate monster. 

Maybe the monster is a friendly monster that is looking for a friend.  Or maybe it’s a monster that is starting monster school. 

The stories will be as unique as the monsters themselves.  

So, when the kids ask to do a craft this week, grab the paper plates and let the kids get creative with these paper plate monsters while you work on cooking dinner or getting those dishes done.

Other paper plate crafts you may like:

• Paper Plate Pufferfish
• Paper Plate Flower
• Paper Plate Snow Globe
• Paper Plate Crafts for Summer