Summer’s sunshine and juicy watermelon go hand in hand, so when little hands are looking for something cool to do, you’ll want to reach for this art project. Invite your kiddos to paint their own slice of summer by transforming a plain paper plate into a cheerful watermelon.
This watermelon paper plate craft uses a kitchen staple as the canvas to create a smiling fruit that looks almost good enough to eat. When you’re ready to keep the creativity going, look through our collection of summer crafts for kids. There’s plenty of inspiration waiting to make this season a good blend of learning and laughter.
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Watermelon Craft Idea
This hands-on activity will have kids honing essential skills and having fun being artistic. They’ll be thrilled to show off their newest piece of art to everyone in sight.
Don’t forget to download our free watermelon template to add the finishing touches to their fruity masterpieces.
Grab a paper plate, some paint, and let the fun begin. This is one project that’s sure to be a hit with your young artists.
Supplies
- Colored cardstock or construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Acrylic Paint
- Marker
- Paintbrush
- Paper Plate
- Watermelon Template (click the “click here to get your freebies” image at the end of the post)
Directions
Start by downloading the template and printing it out. Once you have the template printed, gather the materials needed for this fun activity. Get those scissors ready, and let’s help the kids bring this watermelon to life!
First, go ahead and squeeze a bit of red and green paint onto a spare paper plate. This will be your little palette for easy painting. Next, grab another paper plate and begin painting the outer edge with green paint. This will be the watermelon rind.
Now that the green rind is done and dry, it’s time to fill in the middle! Grab your red paint and start brushing it onto the center of the plate. This will be the sweet, juicy part of your watermelon.
Once the painted plate is dry, go ahead and cut it in half straight across to make two watermelon slice shapes. You’ll be working with one half for this part (or both, if you want to make a pair!).
Then, take the eyes cutouts and help your child glue them near the top center of the red area. Make sure they’re spaced nicely; it’s the first step in bringing your watermelon to life!
Time to give your watermelon a big, happy smile! Grab the mouth piece and help your child glue it below the eyes, right in the center of the red area.
Grab the little pink tongue piece and help your kiddo glue it right inside the mouth. It adds such a fun and playful touch!
Let’s give this happy watermelon a little blush! Grab the two pink cheek circles and help your child glue them on each side of the smile, just below the eyes.
Grab a black marker and let your kid add a pair of eyebrows and some eyelashes if they want it, above the eyes.
Now for the finishing detail: draw on those classic little black seeds! Using your black marker, help your child draw small teardrop shapes scattered around the red area of the watermelon slice.
Optionally, cut out some circle like shapes to from the top of the watermelon to make it look like a bite was taken out of out.
And that’s it! You’ve got the cutest little smiling watermelon slice ever, made from a simple paper plate. We think your kids will have a blast making this! Check out more paper plate crafts here for more hands-on, smile-worthy activities!
Summer Books For Kids
How To Catch A Mermaid is the summer version of the classic “How To Catch” series! It’s perfect for mermaid fans and summer lovers alike!
Gorilla Loves Vanilla is all about, you guessed it – ice cream! This silly book will have kids laughing and asking for you to read it again and again.
Goodnight Pirate is a fun bedtime book to read to kids all summer long! They’ll love the illustrations, story, and rhyming words.
Summer Fun Crafts For Kids
Mermaid Paper Craft – If your little one dreams of swimming with mermaids, this paper craft is a splash-tastic way to bring the magic to life! Kids can create their own colorful mermaid friend with just a few simple supplies and our free template.
Whale Name Craft – Make a splash with this personalized whale project! Kids will love adding the fishy letters to spell out their names while swimming in a sea of creativity.
It’ll be a whale of a time that helps boost letter recognition and practicing spelling their name in an engaging way!
Octopus Toilet Paper Roll Craft – Turn an ordinary toilet paper roll into a tentacled ocean friend! This octopus is swimming with fun and creativity, and kids will love giving their new buddy a personality with their big imaginations. It’s a clever way to reuse, create, and learn all about these fascinating sea creatures all in one go!
Handprint Pineapple Craft – Get ready to add some tropical flair to craft time with this sweet paper pineapple project!
Kids will love turning their handprints into the spiky green top, to make each pineapple totally unique. It’s a fruity, fun way to celebrate summer and create a keepsake parents will treasure.
Summer Fun Activity Sheets
Dive into some under-the-sea fun with these octopus tracing worksheets! The wiggly arms, twisty lines, and friendly sea creatures will turn writing prep into a game.
Little learners will build pencil control, fine motor skills, and confidence when they trace the letter “Oo”, navigating different paths, and trace the dashed lines around an octopus.
They can even color in the octopus once they’re done! It’s a creative and skill building activity that kids won’t want to miss.
These ice cream dot to dot printables will be scoops of fun for your kiddos! They will love connecting the dots to reveal sweet surprises like cones and popsicles.
These pages also sneak in building skills from counting and number recognition to fine motor fun and coloring creativity.
These pages are a cool way to beat the heat whether you’re looking for something to fill a quiet afternoon or a summer celebration. These tasty looking treats are guaranteed to sprinkle a little joy into learning time!
Snip, snip, hooray! These summer cutting activity pages are an engaging way to work in some scissor practice.
The cheerful themes include summer favorites and sunny paths that will have kids be all smiles as they cut along lines, count and paste, and match shapes.
Each page brings a new challenge that boosts coordination, fine motor skills, and confidence. Your little learners will have a blast while sharpening their skills one snip at a time with these four different pages, so grab the scissors to get going!
Roll into summer learning with these summer number playdough mats! Kids will love squishing, rolling, and shaping their way through numbers 1–20 while building fine motor skills and number recognition.
The bright pictures, counting squares, and hands-on fun make learning engaging. Just grab some playdough, and your little learners can dive into squishy number fun again and again. It’s a screen free way to make math as cool as a summer breeze!
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!
Watermelon Paper Plate Craft
Materials
- Colored cardstock or construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Acrylic Paint
- Marker
- Paintbrush
- Paper Plate
- Watermelon Template
Instructions
- Download the template, print it, and cut out the pieces you need.
- Squeeze paint onto a separate paper plate to use as a palette.
- Paint the outer edge of the paper plate green to create the rind. Let dry.
- Paint the center of the plate red to create the fruit's flesh. Let dry.
- Cut the dry paper plate in half.
- Glue the eyes near the top of the cut plate.
- Grab the mouth piece and glue it below the eyes.
- Next, glue the tongue inside the mouth.
- Glue the cheeks below the eyes, on each side of the mouth.
- Draw on the eyebrows and eyelashes if you want, above the eyes.
- Draw seeds across the red area of the plate to complete the design.
- Optionally, cut out circle shapes from the top of the paper plate so it looks like a small bite was taken out of the watermelon.
Free Watermelon Paper Plate Craft Template
Sam is the crafter and founder of Simple Everyday Mom. She has been featured in Oprah Mag, Good Housekeeping, The Spruce Crafts, Country Living, The Bump and more. Read more.