🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🌿 Sensory Exploration — Handling varied craft materials — soft fabric, rough sandpaper, smooth clay, scratchy burlap — builds sensory discrimination and supports the processing skills that some children need additional practice with.
• 👁️ Hand-Eye Coordination — Guiding scissors along a line, placing stickers exactly, and painting within a space all require the visual-motor integration that handwriting, sports, and detailed work depend on.
• 📋 Planning & Sequencing — Multi-step craft projects require children to think about what comes first, next, and last — building the procedural sequencing skills that underlie reading comprehension, mathematics, and everyday problem solving.
• 💪 Persistence & Resilience — Working through a craft that doesn't go as planned, fixing mistakes, and persisting to completion teaches children that effort — not talent — produces results, a mindset that predicts lifelong learning.

The basic preschool paper plate mask is one of the simplest crafts a preschool child can do. Even very young preschoolers can make this preschool craft with minimal help from an adult. The Basic Preschool Paper Plate Mask is a great way for your preschooler to express their creativity, first by making it, then by using it to play pretend. 

Materials You Will Need

White paper plate
White glue
Scissors
Crayons or marks
Large craft stick
Yarn or construction paper for hair

How To Make It

Step 1:
Lay the paper plate on the table with the side you would eat on up.

Step2:
Draw a place for eye holes and a crescent shape for the mouth or as close to it as the child can manage.

Step 3:
Make a starter hole in the plate with the tip of sharp scissors or a knife. (Parent will have to do this part for the child.) 

Step 4:
Insert the children’s scissors into the starter hole and cut out the shapes.

Step 5:
Draw eyes the eyes and the mouth around the holes. 

Step 6:
Draw a nose. 

Step 7:
Glue the craft stick on the back for a handle. Allow to dry completely.

Step 8:
Add hair by coloring, adding yarn, or gluing on construction paper.

Helpful Tips for Parents

Tip 1:
Some very small children may not create any part of the face other than the eyes or the eyes and mouth. That’s fine. He or she may not be ready. You can ask the child what’s missing from his or her picture and point to other parts of the face either on your face or on the mask you have made, but if they don’t get it, don’t sweat it.

Tip 2:
When preparing for your preschooler to do this or any other craft project, it’s best to make one first yourself. It helps your preschooler understand what to do better if s/he can see an example first. It’s also good to make one along with the preschool child so that you can model the craft instructions. This is often much easier for them to understand than just words.

Paper Mask Suggestions

Let your preschool create character masks. You can easily turn the basic preschool paper plate mask into many different types of masks just with the addition of construction paper ears or noses. Or try the Just Like Me Paper Plate Masks.