Paper Plate Activities #1 - Planet & Moon Wall Hanging

I really love paper plates.  In my opinion they are next to useless for the purpose for which they are intended.  They are bendy and difficult to balance and you can't use a knife without very often cutting through them.  They are wonderful, though for children's craft activities.  I've used them so many times in so many ways and so I've decided to put some paper plate activity ideas on my posts over the coming months from time to time.  Today we have a Planet & Moon Wall Hanging.

This idea was created for Love Family the Parent and Toddler group we host at Abundant Life Church.  Our theme for the next couple of weeks is 'Space' and so I very quickly came up with this because we had some paper plates in our craft resources.  A quick rummage through and we found pearlised blue paper, some metallic silver wrapping paper, and some yellow tissue paper.  I cut up these different papers and also cut some of the plates into moon shapes.  Then we left the children to come up with their own planet and moon designs using glue, the blue, silver and yellow papers and some pencils.  You could use anything at all; paints, glitter, sequins, stickers, pens, crayons, tin foil, whatever you can find!

These are Boy's designs.

I then attached some thread to turn it into a wall hanging by making small holes in each plate and hanging one from the other.  Simple!  You could very easily make a sun and moon combination or make a mobile or window hanging for a bedroom.  I've not been too restrictive in what the finished product should look like because many children find that kind of activity frustrating and just enjoy doing their own thing.  This way they can be as creative as they like in how they choose to decorate their planets and moons.

Boy chose to write his name on the back of his moon.  Getting there with his writing!  Buy a pack of paper plates for your child to create with.  We'll provide some more ideas periodically hopefully!