by bluephin

Created on: August 09, 2008   Last Updated: September 03, 2008

I remember some twenty-two years ago, when school was still fun and mostly play, we did some paper plate craft to train our imagination and creativity. One of those projects is to make our own paper plate clock. Makes learning how to tell time more fun because the clocks are personalized and hand-made.

PAPER PLATE CLOCK

What you'll need are:

Paper plates
Crayons, pencil (or whatever coloring medium that you want to use)

Scissors
Sticky tape or glue
Paper fastener
Colored paper

Optional:

Beads
Gems
Ribbons

Here's what you have to do:

1. You can opt to leave your paper plate base as it is or paint or color it.
2. Cut out numbers 1 to 12 from colored paper to put on your clock. Alternatively, you can also gather some old newspaper and/or magazines and look for the numbers from its pages, cut it out and use them for your clock. Just make sure that the numbers are big enough to be seen from the clock face.
3. For the hour and minute hands of the clock, you can either use cut out paper plates or plain paper (but I'll opt to use paper plates they are much stronger than paper). Draw arrows of two different lengths on the paper and cut along the outline for the hands. You can be creative and make wiggly arrows instead of straight ones. Jump out of the box and draw a hand with a finger pointing out instead of arrows. Use your imagination and you can draw whatever you think would fit to "act" as your clock's hands.
4. Color, paint or decorate your clock's hands as you wish.
5. Punch or slice a hole on the center of the paper plate to hold you clock hands.
6. Punch or slice a hole on the end of the clock hands where it will be joined to the center of the clock face.
7. Stick the numbers on the clock face. Make sure that they are placed properly on the right spot where they should be.
8. Stick the paper fastener first on the minute hand, then on the hour hand and lastly on the center of the clock's face. Lock it off firmly to secure the hands in place.
9. Now you've got yourself a paper plate clock that you can use to teach your little ones how to tell time.

Possibilities are endless if you open your eyes and mind and set your imagination free. You can embellish your clock however you wish. You can even use gems, beads or ribbons to form the shape of the numbers on the clock's face. If working with small things like these, make sure that kids are supervised by an adult. Beads and gems could get swallowed by curious little hands and mouths.

PAPER PLATE POP-UP PICTURE FRAME

You'll need:

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