Let’s take a trip to the zoo to see the lions! These majestic animals are always amazing to watch. 

Continue the fun of the zoo at home or in the classroom with this engaging lion paper plate craft! 

Explore more fascinating animals with our zoo animal crafts! You’ll find projects perfect for preschool to elementary aged kids.

Lion With Paper Plate

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Paper plate crafts are a great way to use a household item and some creativity to create something fun and exciting! The bonus is that it’s already round, so it makes the perfect canvas for so many projects.

Your little artists will love the chance to get the paint and paintbrush out to create their next masterpiece. After they have painted the lion’s mane, they’ll use our free template to complete the lion’s face.

Be sure to download the template and check out our step-by-step instructions below to see exactly how we assembled this adorable lion craft.

Supplies

• Paper plate
• Orange paint
• Paintbrush
• Markers
• Colored cardstock or construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Lion template (enter your email in the form at the end of the post to get the template)

Directions

Download the paper plate lion, print, and cut out the pieces you need.

Begin by painting the paper plate in 1-2 thin coats of orange paint. Let it dry completely before moving on.

Once the plate is dry, use a black marker to draw thick lines from the outside of the paper plate to the middle of the paper plate.

Take the eyes and glue them below each of the eyebrows.

Next, take the mouth and glue it in the middle of the face, just overlapping the bottom of the eyes.

Place the nose at the top of the mouth line and glue it in place.

Glue the cheeks on both sides of the mouth.

Optionally, use the black marker to draw the whiskers on both sides of the nose.

Finish up by gluing the face to the middle of the paper plate mane.

Be sure to check out our other fun paper plate crafts while you’re here, your kids will love to make them just as much as they did this cute lion!

Animal Ideas For Kids

Add this lion paper plate craft to your lessons on animals! We share some of our favorite crafts, activities, and printables that will keep kids engaged and excited to learn about all sorts of cool animals.

They’ll be the perfect addition to your lesson plans, plus they’re kid-friendly, fun, and entertaining.

Animal Books For Kids

There is no doubt that reading books to your kids is an incredible way to help them develop and learn new things.

When you read to your children, you introduce them to new worlds and ideas, expand their vocabulary, and improve their comprehension skills—all things that will undoubtedly benefit them in every aspect of their young lives.

See below for some of our favorite animal books!

Animal Crafts For Kids

Did you know that crafting isn’t just fun for kids, but also really beneficial for their development? They learn all sorts of skills when they craft, and are able to strengthen the small muscles in their hands when completing different tasks.

This is important for being able to use scissors or grasp a pencil or crayon. They also work on following directions, which we all know is important in our day-to-day life! Get kids thinking creatively with a new craft to do!

We have lots of cool animal crafts to get you started.

Elephant Craft for Kids – This paper craft makes a cute elephant perfect for times your kids are learning about animals around the world or zoo animals. It’s an easy craft that takes just a few simple steps and supplies to create.

Paper Plate Giraffe Craft – Think tall for this next craft! Kids are always amazed at how tall giraffes are. So tall they can even eat from the top of a tree! Get kids excited to learn more about these amazing animals with a paper plate and our template!

Zebra Paper Bag Puppet Craft – That lunch sack can do more than carry a sandwich! It can become a zebra with our free template and a few supplies! Kids will love using their imaginations when they play with their new puppets.

Koala Handprint Craft – Take a trip Down Under for this next craft! This cute koala is hanging on thanks to your little one’s handprint. It’s a fun way to turn a handprint into an adorable marsupial!

Animal Activities For Kids

Keep the fun from your latest zoo trip going with these zoo animal worksheets! They’re great for kids working on letter recognition, counting, handwriting, and more.

These pages are filled with animals your kids will love. This set of printables includes 24 different pages of games, puzzles, matching, and more!

For a great no-prep activity, the kids can do independently, try these animal do a dot printables. Kids are introduced to all sorts of animals and work on fine motor skills, counting, the alphabet, and more with these sheets!

This set of worksheets is filled with 29 pages that include coloring pages, counting pages, and letter worksheets. Grab the dot markers to get started!

Kids will find the hidden animal pictures when they color in each of the spaces of these animal color by numbers! These pages are great for pre-k kids working on number and color recognition as well as fine motor skills.

Your kids will be engaged and entertained with 7 different animal coloring pages, so grab the crayons and these printables!

Need a last-minute activity? Grab these free printable fox coloring pages. Kids will love coloring in the 5 different fox illustrations.

Each sheet also includes a simple sentence describing what the fox is doing for kids to practice reading. Download and print these coloring pages for a fun activity kids enjoy!

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!

Lion Paper Plate Craft Template