Easy Paper Pineapple Craft for Kids

How to make Paper Pineapples

Make the leaves

1. To make the green pineapple top, take a sheet of green cardstock, place your child’s hand onto the paper and trace around them.

I also tried to outline the hand shapes with a green marker, but this is optional. I found that the fingers blended together too much and didn’t look like individual leaves without the outline. Another way to overcome this issue, if you don’t want to outline your hands, is to use two different shades of green paper instead.

2. To make the top of the pineapple, glue the handprints to the top of your paper.

Place one hand on top of the other, each facing a slightly different angle before using a glue stick to paste them into place. This will make it look like the leaves are layers and facing slightly different directions.

I decided to use a light blue paper for the background of my picture, but this is optional. You can choose a different color, just plain white or have no background at all. If you decide to have no background at all, then all you need to do to make the top of your pineapples, is to stick the two handprints to each other instead.

Make the body of the pineapple

3. Take the lighter of your two yellow paper, and draw diamonds onto it.

This is a great way to show preschoolers and kindergarteners how to use rulers and pencils to make straight lines.

I made small diamonds for my craft, but this may be too tricky for young children. Younger kids can instead make regular squares that are slightly larger, they’ll still give a pineapple pattern, but be easier for them to work with.

4. Cut the diamonds out.

5. Glue the diamonds onto your sheet of darker yellow paper.

Make sure to leave spaces between your diamonds, so that the darker yellow paper can show through.

If this is too fiddly for your kids, there is another way to make a pineapple. Instead, just take a single sheet of yellow paper and draw the lines on with a yellow or orange marker. They’ll still get to play with rulers and pens, but won’t need to worry about cutting out so many small pieces.

6. Draw a pineapple shape into your yellow patterned paper.

Once again, you can make this a simple oval or trace around paper plates to make it a circle.

7. Cut out your pineapple shape.

One reason why I like to make the larger pineapple shape, after creating the diamond patterns, is that I don’t have to worry so much about the edges. If your children also prefer to not have any extra pieces hanging over the edge of their pineapple, doing the steps in this order may work well for you too.

8. Glue the bottom of your pineapple to the background paper.

I used my hands for this craft. As you can see, they’re too big and the handprints get lost in the final pineapple craft. This shouldn’t be a problem with younger kids as their hands are so adorably small.

What you’re learning

Creativity

Let your kids’ imaginations grow as they come up with fun ways to make their own cute pineapples. They may decide to:

1. Use different colors.
2. Use a different shape instead of diamonds.
3. Draw a face on their pineapple.
4. Make a pineapple that looks like it has a bite taken out of it.

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills refer to the small muscles in the hand and fingers. Developing these skills are important in being able to write when the kids go to school, as well as being able to complete tasks independently. (For example, dressing and feeding themselves)

Drawing lines, cutting with scissors and gluing down the diamonds are all going to help young kids develop:

1. Pincer grip
2. Hand-eye coordination
3. Hand strength
4. Dexterity.

Healthy Eating

Fruit is essential to any healthy diet, it’s filled with nutrients that our bodies need to function properly. When making a pineapple picture, it’s a great idea to talk to your kids about healthy eating. You can discuss things like:

1. What is ‘everyday food’?
2. What is ‘sometimes food’?
3. Why can’t we eat ‘sometimes food’ everyday?
4. What does ‘everyday food’ and ‘sometimes food’ do to our bodies?

For more ideas, you can also take a look at these 16 Healthy Eating Activities for Kids.

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