Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids: Mayflower Ship Paper Plate

I’ve shared a couple of movable paper plate crafts recently and when I was trying to think of some fun Thanksgiving crafts for kids this seemed to be the obvious answer! This paper plate Mayflower ship is easy to make and it’s fun to play with too, plus there’s a couple of changes you can make to make it even quicker if you need to.

To make this Thanksgiving craft for kids you will need:

Paper plate

Paints

Paintbrushes

Craft stick

Selotape or washi tape

Yellow card

White card

Glue

Scissors

Colouring Pens

Let’s make it:

Start by painting your paper plate using different shades of blue for the sea and the sky and green for the land on either side. If you don’t have two shades of blue paint then you could add some white to what you already have to make the lighter colour.

When it is dry you are ready to cut a this line from one side to the other making sure that it doesn’t actually reach either side – you don’t want your ship to fall off the end! If your kids can’t manage with waiting for paint to dry (and who can blame them?!) then they can always use felt tip pens or crayons to colour in their paper plate instead.

After that cut a small circle out from yellow card and stick it on to your paper plate to make a sun.

Next up is making the Mayflower itself. On a piece of white card draw your design for the boat and then cut it out using scissors. Turn your ship over and attach a craft stick to the back using selotape or washi tape – I prefer this to glue just because again you don’t have to wait for it to dry this way!

Pop your craft stick through the gap you cut in the paper plate and your Thanksgiving craft is ready to be played with!

If you liked this idea make sure that you bookmark this page or pin the image below so you don’t forget to make it. Want more Thanksgiving crafts for kids? Why not check out our round up of 20 Thanksgiving crafts for kids – you can see a sneak peak of some of them below!

Want something to enourage a bit more thankfulness in your kids? We’ve got 20 gratitude activities for kids here.