Caroline
Paper Plates are a staple at our house, not only for eating but also for creating. When my boys were 5 and 3, one of their favorite bedtime stories was Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae. I got it off their bookshelf the other night and reminisced for a moment of the sweet memories. Then I instantly thought, hey, this would be a fun book to make a giraffe craft with. Our paper plate giraffe was so simple and fun to make.
This post contains affiliate links to the products mentioned. I Heart Crafty Things is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Supplies needed:
- paper plate
- yellow paint
- brown paint
- paint brush
- circular sponge brush
- yellow cardstock or construction paper
- scissors
- glue stick and/or school glue (We also love Glue Dots.)
- large wiggly eyes
- pencil
- black marker
- 2 brown pom-poms
Tutorial:
1. Color your paper plate
Paint the bottom of a paper plate yellow and let it dry completely.
2. Draw ears and muzzle
On a sheet of yellow paper (I used a different shade of yellow than what we painted the paper plate), draw two ears and a large circle for the giraffe muzzle.
3. Cut out your shapes
Have your child cut out all the giraffe pieces, then glue them onto the giraffe. From the same sheet of paper also cut out two small strips for the horns and glue them onto the giraffe.
4. Glue eyes & hair
Next glue on some large wiggly eyes and some brown pom-poms for the brown hair at the top of the horns.
5. Draw mouth & nose
Draw a nose and mouth on your giraffe. We used pencil first and then traced it with black marker. It took my son a couple tries to get his nose how he wanted it so I’m glad we did it this way.
6. Make dots using brown paint
Use a circular sponge brush to dab the brown spots on your giraffe. My son looked at the picture of Gerald in the book and saw that he had some brown at the bottoms of his ears, so he added that too.
