Try It Tuesday: Paper Plate Pirate

Do you know what I love about Paper Plate Crafts? You already have a good sized circle for a head of something, no cutting involved, they are pretty sturdy and paper plates are inexpensive. It keeps the cost down and saves a step.

Recently, we did a Preschool at Home Pirate Theme and this is the paper plate craft we did that I mentioned in that post.

Supplies Needed: paper plate, paint, fabric scrap (headwear), pipecleaner (earring), construction paper (eye patch), googly eye, dot markers (nose and mouth, or just use a marker or paint), black marker, and glue

Directions: Paint the plate and let it dry completely before gluing or drawing on anything. Cut fabric scarp so it fits the top of the head and hanging over to resemble pirate headwear and glue in to place. Twist pipecleaner in to a circle to resemble a hoop earring and glue in to place. Cut out an eye patch shape and glue in to place. Draw on ties for eyepatch with a marker. Glue on googly eye. Using a dot marker (or paint or regular marker), draw on a nose and mouth..

Preschool Theme: Pirates

Here are some of the worksheets, projects and activities that we did this week:

• Paper Plate Pirate
• Cardboard Tube Looking Glass (decorate up a toilet paper tube)
• Dot Art Pp Pirate
• Pirate Memory Game
• Pirate Printables #1
• Pirate Printates #2
• Treasure Chest (jewels and sequins glued to shoebox treasure chest, or print off a mini one)
• Pirate Dress Up
• Treasure Map Hunt (make a treasure map on a brown paper grocery bag)
• Pirate Painting Scene on Canvas 

Try It Tuesday: Paint & Stick Art Canvas

This was a fun project to do with my son. I think it's pretty good work for a 3 year old! I have found that kids get super excited when you let them paint on a stretched canvas. It is a magical medium to paint on because normally only "artists" use a canvas and things on a canvas stay up a lot longer in a home than something just on a piece of paper. The kids have each painted a couple things before on canvas and they hang in their rooms and they are very proud of these works of art.

I bought a 10-pack of 8x10 stretched canvas at Michael's craft store a few months ago for $10, so each one cost me $1. We used paint and brushes that we already owned. The "stickers" are a raised cardstock quality picture with a foam sticker on the back, I bought that sheet from the Dollar Tree. He didn't use all the stickers and later we will make a couple cards using the remainder.

I had him start out by painting the entire canvas in blue and then we let it dry and did some pirate worksheets in the meantime (check back on Friday for my Preschool at Home Theme on Pirates to see what we used). Then I had him paint in the sun, clouds & island.

When it was mostly dry (we were just impatient, but you could wait until it was completely dry) I let him pick out what stickers to use and where to place them.

He was super excited that he has a new painting for his room. When we were finished he asked for a snack of crackers because parrots eat crackers and pirates have parrots. Smart boy!