Are your kids a fan of The Lion King movie? How about animals in general? Mine sure are, and they just loved making their own easy Paper Plate Lion Craft using spin art. This project is perfect if you’re looking for something to do with your kids at home on the weekend, or as a creative activity for your preschool class. Either way, it’ll be a hit with kids of all ages.
Disclosure: Adult supervision is required for all activities at all times. Some of the links provided in this blog are affiliate links. I will be paid a small commission if you use this link to make a purchase.
More Zoo Animal Crafts for Kids
If your kids love animals, why not try some of these other simple crafts that are perfect for a zoo theme.
- Toilet roll giraffe
- Craft Stick Monkey
- Egg Carton Monkey
- Footprint Lion Art
- Toilet Paper Roll Lion Craft
For more ideas, check out these 60 Zoo Animal Crafts for Preschool.
Materials Needed
- Paper plate
- Yellow, red and orange paint
- Paintbrushes
- Salad spinner
- Wiggly eyes
- Black marker
- Glue or double sided
How to Use Spin Art to Make a Paper Plate Lion
1. Paint the plate yellow.
The first step of this fun lion craft is to take your paintbrush and paint your paper plate yellow. Fortunately you don’t have to wait for it to dry before moving onto the next step.
2. Place dots of red and orange paint around the edge of the plate.
Place dots of paint around the outside of the paper plate. I used red and orange paint because that’s what I already had on hand. However you can also try adding brown or even a golden color paint to your lion’s mane.
3. Place the plate in a salad spinner.
If your plate is too large for the salad spinner, then you can easily cut off the rim of the plate until it fits.
I love using salad spinners for spin art, especially with younger children. It’s a great way to contain the mess without compromising on the fun. Just make sure you set your salad spinner aside with the other simple supplies in your art cart. You don’t want to use it for food after you’ve tried painting with it.
4. Put the lid on and spin it.
This is the fun part. Kids of all ages (and us adults too) will have so much fun spinning the plate around and seeing what happens to the paint.
If the mane doesn’t look how you want it. You can always add in more colors and spin it again until you get the pattern you like. For this project I ended up adding random dots up to three times before I was happy with the results of my lion paper plate craft.
5. Take out the plate and let it dry.
The paint in the center of the paper plate will need to be dry before you move onto making the lion’s face.
6. Glue on some googly eyes
I used double sided adhesive tape to attach some googly eyes to my lion craft. However you can always just draw the eyes on with some paint pens or permanent marker.
7. Draw the lion’s nose and mouth
I used a black marker pen for this step. I started by making a small triangle in the middle of the paper plate for the nose. Then adding two curved lines for the mouth and finally a few dots on each side of the face for the whiskers.
Now that your own lions are complete, you can hang them up on your classroom wall or turn them into lion masks. (All you need to do to make this fun idea into a mask is to cut out some eye holes).
Are you going to try this Spin Art Paper Plate Lion Craft with your kids?
Don’t forget to pin the idea for later.
