Have kids transform their little hands into a roaring lion with this fun and easy lion handprint craft. Children can trace, cut, and decorate their handprints with the help of our free template to create a friendly king of the pride.

Kids will love giving their lion a fluffy mane and using their imaginations to bring it to life. Once they’ve finished this wild creation, be sure to explore even more handprint crafts for kids that keep little hands busy and imaginations active.

Handprint Lion

Turn a simple handprint into a mighty lion with this hands-on art project! Kids will enjoy watching their fingers become his feet as they practice cutting, gluing, and imaginative play.

This fun activity supports fine motor development and encourages artistic expression with their 5 little fingers.

This lion handprint activity fits right in during a zoo theme, wild animals week, or when reading stories about majestic creatures of the savanna. It’s a great addition to animal lessons or as a creative afternoon activity at home.

Use our free template to give your little one’s lion its face, mane, and tail. It’s a playful way to talk about animals while creating a wild and wonderful keepsake with little hands.

Supplies

Colored cardstock or construction paper
Scissors
Glue
Marker
Lion Template (click the “click here to get your freebies” image at the end of the post)

Click here to see our favorite kids’ craft supplies.

Directions

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

Hands are holding up a lion craft template for kids, which features outlined pieces like the mane, head, tail, eyes, and nose, each labeled for tracing or cutting from colored paper.

Grab the circle piece and start snipping small slits all around the edge of the circle. This will give the lion’s mane its fun, textured look.

Hands are cutting slits around the edge of a round orange paper circle to create the mane for a lion kids craft.

Once you’re done cutting, the circle should be full of tiny fringe-like cuts all around the edge. Push some parts up and some done to give it a 3D look.

Hands are holding an orange paper circle with evenly spaced slits around the edge, showing the completed cutting step for the lion’s mane in a kids craft project.

Glue the eyes onto the head piece, lining them up under the eyebrows to start forming the lion’s face.

Hands are gluing the eyes onto the lion face cutout while the orange mane with slits lies nearby, preparing the pieces for assembly in a lion kids craft project.

Click here to see why I recommend these craft supplies

Grab a pink marker and gently color the inside of the ears. This tiny detail makes a big difference and adds a touch of cuteness to your lion’s face!

Hands are coloring the lion’s ears with a pink marker on the face cutout, while the orange paper mane sits nearby, as part of a kids lion craft project.

Still using your marker, draw on the rosy cheeks just below the eyes.

Hands are using a pink marker to add blush marks on the lion's cheeks.

Now take the decorated lion face and glue it right into the center of the orange mane. Your lion’s face is complete!

Hands are gluing the finished lion face onto the center of the orange paper mane, completing the main part of the lion kids craft.

Trace your child’s hand on a piece of paper and cut it out. This will become the lion’s body, with the fingers acting as legs. Once the handprint is ready, take the completed lion face with its fringed mane and glue it over the thumb side of the handprint.

Hands are attaching the completed lion head and mane onto a orange handprint cutout, which forms the body of the lion in this fun kids craft.

Next, grab the tail piece from the template and glue it to the back side of the handprint near the pinky finger.

Hands are gluing a curved paper tail with a lighter tip onto the back of the orange handprint lion body, completing the final step of this kids lion craft.

Finally, glue the small rounded tip of the tail right onto the end of the curved tail piece. This tiny detail completes your lion’s look!

Hands are pressing down the light orange tip of the paper tail to finish assembling the lion craft, which features an orange handprint body and a circular mane.

Isn’t this little lion turning out adorable? If your kids had fun with this one, you’ve got to check out our other animal crafts for kids. They’re just as cute and just as easy to make together!

A hand is holding a finished handprint lion craft, which includes a circular mane with cut slits, a friendly face, a hand-shaped body, and a tail with a rounded tip, all placed on a smooth surface beneath a folded fabric backdrop.

Elephant Toilet Paper Roll Craft

Zoo Animal Children’s Books

The Fascinating Animal Book For Kids is a great book for curious kiddos! Find facts on almost any animal your child is learning about. This is a great resource to have in your home library collection.

The View At The Zoo is a silly book about all the animals at the zoo. When the people come to take a look at the animals, they see all sorts of sights! But, there’s a twist to this book that you have to read for yourself and laugh about!

Giraffes Can’t Dance is a sweet and fun book about Gerald the Giraffe. He can’t dance, but doesn’t stop trying! He finally finds his own rhythm when he meets an unlikely friend.

Two completed handprint lion crafts are displayed on a white surface, each featuring an orange hand-shaped body, a round red mane with cut slits, a smiling face, and a curved tail with a red tip.

Zoo Theme Crafts For Preschool

Zebra Handprint Craft For Kids – Turn tiny hands into a stripy safari friend with this zebra made out of your kiddo’s handprint! Kids will love using markers to draw on bold black stripes and bringing their zebra to life with the help of our free template. It’s a wild way to mix art with animal fun!

Giraffe Headband Craft – Stretch your little ones’ imaginations sky-high with a fun giraffe headband! Whether you’re learning about zoo animals or exploring the African savanna, kids will love pretending to be tall, spotted giraffes. This playful headband adds extra laughs and creativity to any animal adventure.

Tiger Headband Craft

Monkey Toilet Paper Roll Craft – Swing into crafting fun by turning a toilet paper roll into a cheeky little monkey! Kids will love recycling this everyday item into a playful pal with a curly tail. It’s a creative way to add some monkey mischief to story time or imaginative play!

Lion Paper Plate Craft – Making this lion will be a roaring good time! Kids can paint, cut, and decorate their mighty lion using an everyday plate as their canvas. Our free template will help guide your little artists, and they’ll have a blast making this big cat that’s full of charm and color.

Preschool Zoo Activities

These zebra worksheets make learning the letter Zz a fun adventure! Kids will practice writing uppercase and lowercase Zz along with the word zebra, then weave through a letter maze to spot every Zz.

They’ll sharpen their fine motor and scissor skills by labeling zebra parts, building vocabulary while getting hands-on with this stripey safari friend. It’s an engaging way to mix letters, words, and cutting practice all in one wild worksheet pack!

collage image of 4 Preschool Zoo Activities

Our elephant dot to dots are a fantastic way to boost concentration, focus, and attention while creating adorable artwork. Kids will enjoy connecting the numbered dots in order, practicing counting and following instructions with every line they draw.

This fun activity strengthens hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills as they bring each elephant to life. Download these free connect the dot pages and watch as kids enjoy both learning and coloring their charming elephant creations!

Zoo Animal Worksheets

Swing on over to check out these free monkey color by numbers that feature 3 different monkey illustrations. Kids will be excited to reveal the hidden monkeys as they fill in each numbered space with the matching color. This activity helps build color and number recognition, following directions, and fine motor skills.

If reading isn’t quite ready yet, no worries, just color in the key at the bottom and match colors to numbers for easy, hands-on learning and lots of monkey mischief!

A single completed handprint lion craft is displayed on a flat surface, featuring a circular mane with cut slits, a smiling face, a hand-shaped body, and a tail with a rounded tip, all set beneath a draped fabric backdrop.

Letter Z is for Zoo brings alphabet learning to life with fun tracing, coloring, and zoo themed pictures! Kids who love animals will enjoy exploring each page to practice the letter Z while discovering their favorite zoo creatures. There’s plenty of space for tracing letters and words, and this printable pack makes learning playful and engaging.

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!

Two completed handprint lion crafts are displayed on a wooden surface surrounded by glue sticks, scissors, and colored paper, showing a finished result with a circular mane, hand-shaped body, and tail tip—all made from paper.

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