Crafts with Paper Plates and Cups for Toddlers/Pre-schoolers

Everything was quite when I came downstairs at 7 AM today. Megha and Anand were still asleep. I made some coffee for myself and sat down in the quite. While sipping coffee I pondered what Megha might like to do this Saturday morning. A craft! She loves crafts. I started thinking what new things I can make with the material I have at home. Immediately I decided that we would be playing with paper plates and cups! That's it! simple and easy.

After breakfast where she surprised me with a little new song, we sat down and made crafts :) 

Materials used: 

Paper Plates

Paper cups

Marker

Cello Tape

Elastic band

Toddler safe water colors

Plastic forks

Craft 1: 

I was absolutely blown away with Megha's creativity. The original plan was to make a basket out of a paper cup. Just took some elastic and stuck it around the paper cup to make a little basket. Megha held the cup and then the elastic band while I applied the tape. Ta da! There's the little basket! She was playing with it and I went to check in on the potatoes that I was baking. And when I turned around, the little basket had magically turned into a party hat! How cool is that?!!!! My awesome, creative baby!

Give your child the means and freedom to explore and they will surprise you and thrive in the new found avenue. 

Craft 2:

A simple humpty dumpty using tape, 2 paper cups and marker. Megha helped me with this as well. We used 2 plastic forks to make hands and there is our little toy :) I dont think she really likes this toy much. She only played with it for about 1 minute. But thats OK...she doesnt have to like everything that we make. 

Craft 3: 

A little Picasso in the making? I sure think so (a mom's opinion)!!! I opened some toddler safe water colors and gave her a couple of paper plates and a cup. She was at this painting for at least 30 minutes! She kept saying the color names out loud when dipping her tiny little fingers into the colors. She kept asking me to look at her painting and when I told her she is doing an awesome job, she seems to like the compliment.
We are not aiming for perfection and we are not aiming to make anything out of it. We are just aiming to have fun with colors. What a great day for a great art :)
Here is plate 1:

Here is the paper cup:

Here is the final piece. By then so many colors were mixed that t had become black/deep blue.

After our beautiful 1 and half hours of craft time, I wiped out the table with lysol wet-wipes and I gave her a bubble bath, her favorite :)