5 Pre-School Learning Activities Using Disposable Paper Plates

Learning Activities on Plain paper is so boring …isn’t it? Let’s use some disposable paper plates for creating fun activities for kids.

Here are 5  learning Activities for your toddlers and Pre-schoolers.  I  have used some dot stickers, coloured washi tape and pen/markers to make learning more colourful for the little ones.

1. Visual Discrimination Activities

• Create partitions on the paper plate using Washi tape.
• Create some random patterns using Dot Stickers in each partition.
• Create corresponding same patterns on pieces of paper and ask the child to match the patterns.
• Visual discrimination activity helps in building focus and observation skills.

2. Fine Motor Skills

• Use different coloured dot stickers on the circumference of the plate
• Provide the toddler with the cloth clips with matching dot stickers.
• The child needs to put the matching cloth clip on the corresponding dot sticker.
• This enhances the pincer grip of the child that would aid him to hold the pencil for writing activities later.

3. Numbers and Alphabets Matching Activities

• This is an extension of the fine motor skill activity given above.
• Label the dot stickers with numbers and alphabets.
• The child needs to identify the corresponding digit on the cloth clips and match on the paper plate.  

4. Counting  and Phonics Activities

• Create partition on paper plate using Washi tape.
• Use dot stickers for counting and any other object stickers for phonics activity.
• Each partition will have 1,2,3,4 number of stickers respectively and the child would count the stickers on each section and match to the number (use paper pieces or plastic/wooden numbers).
• Similarly, for the phonics activity, the child needs to match the first sound of the object sticker to the wooden/paper alphabet. ( kindly refer to the picture).
• This activity can be further extended to “Uppercase- lowercase” alphabet matching, last sound matching, vowel matching etc. as per the requirement of the child.

5. Lift the Flap Activities – Reading Skills

• Take two paper plates and join them at the center using push pin.
• Make equal partitions in both plates.
• The top plate will be cut along the partition line to create a flap over the below plate’s partition.
• Write the words on the top plate and stick corresponding object picture /sticker on the plate below
• The child reads the word and then self- checks if she read it correctly by lifting the flap.
• This is a Montessori inspired self-correcting activity that can be kept on the Montessori shelf for self-learning of the child.  
• The Lift the Flap technique can be further extended to questions- answers kind of games too depending on the age of the child.

So, what are you waiting for? Look around your house. Let’s de-clutter and find a better use of the stuff to make learning more fun for kids at a budget. Happy parenting everyone!!

Disclaimer: All photographs in this article are original and belong to the author. Reproducing them in any form without the permission of the author will not be allowed.

Also read: DIY Activities For Your Junior: Lovely Ladybug (Craft)

Explore the entire collection of articles: Early Learning & Brain Development

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