Paper Plate Spring Crafts for Preschoolers

Spring is finally here, and that means it’s time to bring out the craft supplies and create something colorful with your little ones. Paper plate spring crafts for preschoolers are the perfect way to celebrate the season without breaking the bank or requiring a fine arts degree.

These simple crafts transform ordinary plates into blooming trees, fluffy sheep, rainbow arcs, and buzzing bees. They’re ideal for classroom activities, rainy afternoon projects at home, or keeping toddlers entertained while you grab a cup of coffee.

In this post, you’ll find fun ideas for every spring theme—from flowers and baby animals to weather and friendly bugs. Each craft supports fine motor skills, color recognition, and creative expression. Ready to dive in? Let’s start with the easiest projects first.

Quick Start: Easiest Paper Plate Spring Crafts for Preschoolers

If you’re short on time or new to crafting with kids, these ultra-simple projects are where you want to begin. They require minimal prep and use supplies you probably already have in the house.

Here are four adorable crafts to try right now:

Craft	Description	Key Supplies
Paper Plate Sun	Paint the plate yellow, add triangle rays cut from construction paper, and draw a happy face	Yellow paint, paper, markers
Fluffy Cloud	Leave the plate white or paint it light blue, then cover with cotton balls	Cotton balls, glue stick
Simple Rainbow	Cut the plate in half, paint rainbow stripes, and add cotton ball clouds at the bottom	Paint or crayons, cotton balls
Baby Chick	Paint the plate yellow, add an orange beak, googly eyes, and little feet	Yellow paint, orange paper, googly eyes

These crafts work beautifully for kids ages 2–5 and support skills like color recognition, gluing practice, and developing that all-important pincer grasp.

Pro tip: Set up a small spring craft table from March through May with a stack of plates and a bin of pre-cut shapes. This way, you’re always ready when a child says, “I want to make something!”

Supplies for Paper Plate Spring Crafts with Preschoolers

Before you start any project, stock a simple spring crafting basket once and use it for every activity on this page. Having everything in one place makes crafting with preschoolers so much fun instead of a scavenger hunt.

Essential Supplies

• White and colored paper plates
• Washable tempera paint (quick-dry varieties work best for group settings)
• Chunky crayons and washable markers
• Glue sticks and liquid glue
• Child-safe scissors
• Cotton balls
• Tissue paper squares in spring colors
• Colored construction paper
• Craft sticks (popsicle sticks)
• Yarn
• Googly eyes

Safety Notes

• Adult supervision is required when using scissors with preschoolers
• Craft knives should only be handled by adults when cutting slits for interactive crafts
• Stick to non-toxic, washable materials for easy cleanup

Optional Extras

For classroom use or special projects, consider adding:

• Glitter glue
• Foam stickers and shapes
• Spring-themed stamps
• Dot markers
• Tissue paper in multiple colors

Paper Plate Spring Flowers and Gardens

Paper plates make the perfect canvas for bright spring flowers and garden scenes. These crafts are ideal for March and April bulletin boards or for brightening up your house during the gray days of winter turning into spring.

Basic Paper Plate Flower

This fun craft transforms a single plate into a cheerful bloom:

1. Cut petals around the rim of the paper plate (adults can pre-cut for younger kids)
2. Paint or color each petal in your child’s favorite spring colors
3. Add a contrasting circle center using construction paper or a painted circle
4. Glue the flower to a green craft stick stem

For more inspiration and ideas for creative projects, explore top DIY kits perfect for family crafting fun!

Tissue paper scrunches or dot markers work wonderfully for flower centers and help build fine motor skills in little hands.

Paper Plate Flower Garden Scene

For a more complete project:

• Paint the top half of the plate sky blue
• Paint the bottom section as green grass
• Cut simple flower shapes from colored paper
• Add green paper stems and leaves around the plate edge
• Create a row of flowers growing from the grass

Display finished flowers on classroom walls or windows to create a spring garden mural that kids will love to watch grow throughout the season. For more creative ideas, try making this fun and easy crab paper plate craft for kids to make together as a companion project.

Paper Plate Spring Tree with Blossoms

This craft turns a humble paper plate into a stunning 3D blossoming tree—perfect for talking about cherry blossoms, new leaves, and seasonal changes with your preschoolers.

Materials needed:

• Paper plate
• Blue and green paint
• Brown cardboard or construction paper
• Pink, white, purple, and green tissue paper
• Glue

Instructions:

1. Paint the top half of the plate sky blue and the bottom half light green to represent grass. Let dry completely.
2. Cut a tree trunk from cardboard or brown construction paper, making it wide at the base. Cut several branch strips as well.
3. Glue the trunk onto the plate so it rises from the green grass into the blue sky area. Attach branches extending outward.
4. Have preschoolers scrunch small pieces of pink, white, and light purple tissue paper into tiny balls for blossoms.
5. Scrunch green tissue paper for new spring leaves.
6. Press the tissue balls onto glue dots or liquid glue along the branches to fill the tree with color.

This craft pairs beautifully with spring tree picture books during circle time. Arty crafty kids especially love the tactile experience of scrunching tissue paper—it’s like giving their fingers a mini workout while creating something beautiful.

Paper Plate Garden and Moving Bee

Here’s where things get interactive. This spring paper plate craft features a garden scene with a bumble bee that actually moves between the flowers.

What makes it special: Kids can slide the bee back and forth, which extends play time well beyond the crafting session and teaches cause-and-effect thinking.

Step-by-step:

1. Paint the entire paper plate brown to represent soil
2. Add a band of green paper or green paint along the top edge for grass
3. Adult step: Use a craft knife to cut a horizontal slit across the green grass area
4. Create flowers using printed templates or hand-drawn designs on cardstock
5. Make stems from green construction paper, bending them into an “L” shape so flowers can stand up when glued
6. Craft a simple bee from yellow paper with black stripes, white paper wings, and drawn-on antennae
7. Glue the bee to a craft stick
8. Slide the stick through the slit so the bee can “fly” along the garden

This craft is a perfect spring craft for introducing bees, pollination, and why flowers are so important. Don’t forget to talk about how bees help our food grow!

Paper Plate Spring Animals

Preschoolers absolutely love cute baby animals, and spring is the season of lambs, chicks, bunnies, and birds. These plate spring crafts capture that adorable energy perfectly.

Fluffy Sheep

This simple craft uses the plate’s round shape as a ready-made body:

• Keep the paper plate whole as the sheep’s woolly body
• Cover the entire surface with cotton balls (this is so much fun for little fingers)
• Cut a simple face shape from black paper
• Add ears from black paper
• Attach googly eyes
• Optional: Add four black paper legs

Pair this craft with springtime farm stories or books like Little Ewe during preschool reading time.

Paper Plate Chick

A cheerful spring classic:

• Paint the entire plate bright yellow
• Cut an orange triangle beak from construction paper
• Add orange construction paper feet
• Create small wing shapes from yellow or orange paper
• Glue on googly eyes
• Draw on a happy expression with markers

Quick Bunny Face

Perfect for Easter or general spring themes:

• Use a half plate as the bunny’s face
• Cut long ear shapes from extra paper
• Add a cotton ball for the nose
• Draw whiskers with crayons or markers
• Attach googly eyes

These animal crafts work wonderfully alongside Easter stories or spring farm unit activities in the classroom.

Paper Plate Bird Nest Craft

This springtime nest craft connects perfectly with birdwatching discussions and nature walks—great for when preschoolers start noticing birds building nests outside.

How to create it:

1. Cut a paper plate in half
2. Paint it brown or cover with strips of brown paper to look like twigs
3. Glue paper strips, yarn, or shredded brown paper across the half plate to build texture
4. Add 2–3 small blue or speckled paper “eggs” inside the nest
5. Optional: Create simple baby birds from small circles with triangle beaks peeking over the edge

Hang these nests along a classroom wall to create a “bird nursery” display for April and May. Kids love checking on their nests each week!

Spring Weather and Rainbow Paper Plate Crafts

Paper plates make perfect bases for exploring spring weather themes with preschoolers. From rain clouds to bright rainbows, these crafts help kids understand the season’s changing weather.

Quick Weather Crafts

Craft	Base	Key Details
Rainbow	Half plate	Paint rainbow bands, add cotton ball clouds at bottom
Rain Cloud	Full plate	Paint gray or light blue, tape yarn “raindrops” to back
Umbrella	Half plate	Decorate with dots or stripes, add paper handle

These spring crafts tie naturally into discussions about rainy days, puddles, and why plants need spring showers to grow. For a seasonal project with an Easter twist, try making adorable bunny dresses for toddlers.

Paper Plate Rainbow for Color Practice

This craft is ideal for reinforcing color recognition and teaching the order of the rainbow—a skill preschoolers love to master.

Instructions:

1. Cut a paper plate in half to create the rainbow’s arc shape
2. Draw curved guide lines for six color bands: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple
3. Fill each band using:
   • Washable paint
   • Markers
   • Torn colored paper pieces (great for fine motor practice!)
4. Glue fluffy cotton balls along the straight bottom edge for clouds

Learning extension: Adults or older kids can label each color along the edge to reinforce color vocabulary. This is a complete color recognition activity disguised as a fun craft.

Pair this craft with a simple rainbow book or the classic rainbow song during circle time. Remember, learning through play is what sticks!

Butterflies, Ladybugs, and Other Spring Bugs

Paper plates are wonderful for exploring friendly spring insects. Butterflies, ladybugs, bees, and snails all translate beautifully to this medium—and bugs are endlessly fascinating to preschoolers.

Paper Plate Butterfly

A colorful favorite:

1. Cut the plate into two wing shapes
2. Decorate with paint, dot markers, or stickers in symmetrical patterns
3. Glue both wings to a craft stick body
4. Add googly eyes and pipe cleaner antennae

This craft supports discussions about symmetry and patterns.

Ladybug Plate

Bright and cheerful:

• Paint the entire plate red
• Cut a half-circle head from black paper and attach at the top
• Add black paper spots scattered across the red surface
• Draw a line down the center to represent wings
• Add googly eyes to the head

Simple Bee Craft

Perfect for reinforcing the garden and bee connection:

• Paint alternating yellow and black stripes across the plate
• Cut white paper wings and attach to the back
• Add a smiling face with markers
• Consider adding pipe cleaner antennae

These bug crafts pair naturally with outdoor nature walks and conversations about pollinators, gardens, and the tiny creatures that fill spring days.

Simple Snail and Caterpillar Crafts

Snails and caterpillars are perfect for curious preschoolers who might be a bit wary of more “scary” bugs. These gentle creatures make adorable crafts.

Snail Craft:

• Use the full plate as the snail’s shell
• Decorate with spiral lines, dots, or glued-on paper shapes in bright colors
• Cut a simple paper strip body
• Draw eyes and antennae peeking out from behind the shell
• Attach the body so it extends from the shell’s edge

Caterpillar Craft:

• Glue a row of colored circles along the bottom of a half plate
• Alternatively, attach pom-poms along the rim
• Add googly eyes to the first circle
• Draw antennae and a smile
• Use different colors for each body segment

Link these crafts to stories about caterpillars and butterflies to introduce life cycle concepts. Preschoolers love learning that caterpillars transform into butterflies!

Tips for Doing Paper Plate Spring Crafts with Preschoolers

These crafts work beautifully in homes, preschools, and daycare settings from March through May. Here’s how to make the experience smooth and enjoyable for everyone.

Practical Tips for Success

• Pre-cut tricky shapes before craft time begins—let adults handle scissors and craft knives
• Offer 2–3 color choices at a time to prevent overwhelm
• Model each step with a sample plate before kids begin
• Keep sessions short (15–30 minutes is plenty for most preschoolers)
• Check that glue is truly dry before sending projects home

Organization Ideas

Consider organizing crafts by week to build a spring theme unit:

Week	Theme	Featured Crafts
1	Rainbows & Weather	Rainbow, rain cloud, sun
2	Flowers & Gardens	Flower, spring tree, garden scene
3	Baby Animals	Chick, sheep, bunny
4	Birds & Nests	Bird nest, bluebird
5	Bugs	Butterfly, ladybug, bee, caterpillar

Display Ideas

Make those creations shine:

• Hang finished crafts from string across the classroom
• Create themed bulletin boards
• Set up a “spring gallery” at child height so kids can admire their own work
• Send projects home with a note explaining what skills the child practiced

The Most Important Tip

Focus on process over perfection. Let preschoolers explore paint, glue, and textures freely. A “messy” craft made with joy teaches more than a Pinterest-perfect project completed by an adult.

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Spring paper plate crafts bring the season indoors and give preschoolers meaningful ways to develop fine motor skills, learn about nature, and express their creativity. Whether you grab supplies for a quick rainbow or set up a week of themed activities, these craft projects deliver loads of learning wrapped in colorful fun.

Start with one simple craft this week and watch your preschoolers light up as they create something they’re proud of. Don’t forget to share your creations—we’d love to see what you make! Leave a comment below with your child’s favorite spring craft, or share photos on Facebook to inspire other parents and teachers.

Looking for free printable templates to make these crafts even easier? Download our spring craft starter kit and check back next week for more seasonal activities perfect for little hands.