Cardinal Paper Plate Craft For Kids (Free Template)

Cardinals bring a pop of red to a snowy landscape in winter! These brightly colored birds remind us of the beauty that thrives even in the coldest months.

When kids make this cardinal paper plate craft, they can create something beautiful at home or in the classroom. They’ll transform an everyday paper plate into a stunning winter bird! 

Once they’ve created their cardinal, don’t let the fun stop there! Explore more of our winter crafts for kids to keep those cozy, creative vibes going all season long.

Red Cardinal Craft For Kids

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This activity involves kids painting, cutting, and pasting to create a beautiful cardinal out of a common household item. Kids will love seeing how an ordinary object can turn into something extraordinary, and parents and teachers will appreciate how budget-friendly and simple this activity is. 

It’s a fun winter project that will keep little hands busy while keeping them warm indoors. Download our free cardinal template and gather your supplies. You’ll need a paper plate, red paint, and other basics. 

Supplies

• Colored cardstock or construction paper
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• Paper plate
• Paint
• Paintbrush
• Cardinal template (unlock the image at the end of the post to go to the download page)

Directions

Start by downloading the template and printing it out. Once the template is printed, gather the materials for this fun activity. Get those scissors ready, and let’s help the kids bring this cardinal to life!

First, guide your child to paint the paper plate with 1-2 thin coats of red paint. Let it dry completely before moving on to the next step.

Cut out the paper plate in half and glue the wing to the top portion of the paper plate.

Next, glue the tail on the back and right side of the paper plate.

Glue the black eye spot to the left side of the cardinal’s head.

Position the eye on the right part of the eye spot and glue it in place.

Now, help your child glue the beak to the left side of the head.

Place the head on the top portion of the body and glue it down.

Finally, encourage your child to glue the feet to the bottom portion of the body. Glue the right foot to the front of the paper plate and the left foot to the back of the paper plate.

While you’re here, check out our paper plate crafts. We’ve got lots of fun ideas to keep kids busy all year round!

Winter Animals Preschool Theme

Turn your classroom or home into a winter wonderland by creating a fun and engaging winter animal theme for your preschoolers! Learning about animals that thrive in the cold is a great way to spark curiosity and excitement in young minds.

Hands-on projects and activities make it easy to bring these chilly creatures to life and will encourage creativity while teaching kids about the wonders of winter wildlife. Read on below for ideas that include books, DIYs, and educational activities featuring some of our favorite animals that call frosty places home!

Winter Animal Books For Kids

Here are some of the best winter animal books.

Polar Bear Island is a fun book for winter! Polar Bear Island is just that – only for polar bears! That is until Kirby the penguin comes to visit. She turns the place around and adds tons of interesting excitement, but will the polar bears let her stay? You have to check it out and see for yourself!

Tacky The Penguin– This is a great book for children to learn about acceptance and valuing others for exactly who they are.

Owl Babies– A sweet book that teaches kids that Mom always comes back! It’s especially great for children who may have separation anxiety.

Winter Animal Crafts For Kindergarten

Moving Polar Bear Paper Plate Craft – Bring the Arctic indoors by making a winter scene! Kids will love transforming a simple paper plate into a snowy wonderland, complete with a polar bear puppet that slides and glides through the frosty fun.

Related: Polar Bear Dot To Dot

Penguin Photo Craft—With this adorable project, your little ones will turn into the coolest penguins around! They’ll use their photo as the penguin’s face to create a personal and funny touch. 

Arctic Fox Handprint Craft—Let’s turn little hands into arctic foxes! Our free template helps kids create a frosty friend with their handprint as the star of the show. This fun winter activity encourages creativity and makes an adorable keepsake!

Sponge Painted Snowy Owl – Trade the paintbrush for a sponge to paint fluffy white feathers on a snowy owl. It’s a hoot of an activity that’s easy, messy in the best way, and full of creativity!

Winter Animal Preschoolers Printables

These engaging walrus worksheets will have kids tracing lines to form the letter W, building hand-eye coordination and perfecting their handwriting skills.

Labeling the walrus parts sharpens scissor practice and fine motor abilities, while solving the letter W maze boosts letter recognition for future reading and writing success. It’s a playful way to combine learning and creativity, giving your little learners a big boost while they explore this big tusked mammal!

Keep little hands busy and learning with these fun winter do a dot printables! These pages are great for keeping kids entertained, helping them practice number and letter recognition, strengthening math and reading skills, and boosting fine motor development.

Laminate the pages so kids can enjoy them again and again all winter long! Grab the dot markers and get to the fun!

Your little ones can begin to master scissor skills with these four fun polar bear cutting activity pages! There are straight, curved, wavy, and zig-zagged paths that kids will enjoy the challenge of cutting along each line.

These engaging penguin science worksheets are packed with fun activities that teach about penguin habitats, life cycles, and anatomy. This set has colorful illustrations and hands-on tasks like sequencing, cutting, and pasting, where kids will build essential skills while learning about these amazing birds.

Incorporate these pages in a penguin-themed unit or winter animals unit or for some extra science fun. Your little scientists will have a blast learning with these sheets!

Polar Bear Paper Bag Puppet

Share With Us

Did you make this activity with your kids or students? We’d love to feature them on our social media!

For a chance to have your child’s project featured, simply snap a picture of the completed project and post it to our Facebook page, email it to us directly by clicking here, or use #simpleeverydaymom on your social media!

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