Paper Plate Umbrella Craft for Kids

This paper plate umbrella craft for kids is such a simple and cute idea you’ll wonder why you haven’t tried it before!

It’s perfect for spring crafts, weather topics or letter U crafts, or of course just because you need an easy craft to keep your kid entertained.

It’s a great opportunity to encourage some creativity too and as well as sharing how to make this cute umbrella craft I’ll also be sharing ways that you can adapt it at home or in a preschool or classroom.

Paper Plate Umbrella Craft

I love paper plate crafts because they’re so affordable and they’re a great choice if you’re at home trying to keep little ones entertained.

This is a craft that I made with my kids when one was in the early years at school and the other was in preschool.

As you can see it’s an activity that’s easy to do with kids of different ages as they can add their own designs and older older can use the scissors themselves while you will need to do any cutting for younger children.

As a rainy day activity it’s fun enough for school age kids but it’s simplicity makes its a good craft for toddlers too.

It’s also a great choice if you’re trying to teach about weather as we’ve tried out a simple add-on activity to make it a little more interesting.

No paper plates? Grab our free printable umbrella template and decorate that instead.

Craft Supplies:

• Paper Plates
• Scissors
• Glue
• Black or colored cardstock
• Paint
• Paintbrushes

Umbrella craft

Cut out the umbrella handle from black or colored cardstock and then cut curved lines into your paper plate to make it into an umbrella shape.

Depending on the age of your child they may be able to do this themselves although they will obviously still require supervision.

Get your child to stick the umbrella handle onto the back of the paper plate and then they are free to paint and design their umbrella however they wish.

If my kids are a bit tired after school or preschool I like to sit down and craft with them as it gives us a nice relaxed opportunity for a chat, so my umbrella craft is the yellow one, my son at age five did the red and blue one and my two year old daughter did the swirly purple one.

I like to use a plate to put the paints on as it can make them more accessible for my kids to use and allows for them to mix the colors if they like, this can be a good way to discus primary and secondary colors too.

This is a great craft if you are talking about the weather and a fun way to extend it is once the paint is dry, pop some water onto your paintbrushes and get it to ‘rain’ onto the paper plates.

What happens to the paints? What happens to the colours? Most importantly though it’s good fun!

Adaptation Ideas

If you don’t fancy the mess that comes with painting why not use crayons, colored markers or stickers to decorate it? Dot paints can also be a good option as they tend to be a bit less messy than using a paint brush.

For a change from paintbrushes you could paint your umbrella design using pom poms, fingertips or glue on some tissue paper squares for a bright and cheerful look.

If you don’t have any craft paper for the bottom half of the umbrella you could try cutting the handle shape out of the leftover part of the paper plate or if you have any pipe cleaners you could bend these into shape and attach them onto the back of the paper plate instead.

More Paper Plate Crafts for Kids

• Seasonal Paper Plate Crafts for Every Month of the Year
• Rocking Paper Plate Crabs
• Paper Plate Orca
• Paper Plate Sun

Make sure you follow my board on Pinterest for more fun paper plate craft ideas!

Follow Kate Williams CraftsonSea’s board Paper Plate Crafts on Pinterest.