Easy Activities for Children with Construction Paper

Construction paper is a great medium to create activities for children, and explore arts and crafts with your kids. Not only is it easy to cut and colorful, it is also extremely affordable and sold in giant stacks. You can probably even pick up a package of construction paper at your local grocery store!

But, now that you have 300 sheets of construction paper, what do you do with it? The possibilities are endless! So, grab yourself a glue stick and a pair of scissors and get ready to make art with your child.

Check out these easy crafts with construction paper:

Paper Plate Turtle:  

Depending on the age of your child you may want to set this one up in advance.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your paper plate turtle:

• Small paper plates
• Green construction paper
• Googly eyes (optional: you can always draw eyes on with a marker or crayon)
• Glue stick
• Green acrylic paint
• Paint sponges or brushes
• Scissors

Small children will love to paint the turtle “shell” (paper plate) with sponges or even their fingers. Just make sure to spead a protective layer of newspaper down first before you set them free with the green paint! Older children can use brushes to make a detailed design on the shell. Once the shell is dry, cut out legs, head and tail shapes from the green construction paper. You can do this for your small children, or draw them onto the paper for older children to cut out. Then, glue the pieces to the bottom of the plate and suddenly it becomes a turtle!

If you want to have this ready for your children to simply assemble and paint, cut out the body pieces ahead of time.

Try building a Shape Train:

For this craft you will need to cut out shapes from construction paper ahead of time. This can be an especially fun craft if your child has recently learned the names of various shapes like triangle, rectangle, square and circle.

You’ll need:

• Construction paper
• Crayons or markers
• Glue stick
• Scissors

From different colors of construction paper you can cut out: two big circles, one smaller circle, two small triangles, a medium rectangle, a large square, and a large rectangle.

For younger children, you can trace the outline of the shapes onto a larger piece of construction paper. That way, it becomes a matching game. Children will need to glue the pieces onto the large paper, where they fit into the spaces you’ve already drawn for them. Older children will love experimenting to see what other things they can build with their shapes.

We love this butterfly craft:

Not only is it super easy to assemble, it is adorable when complete and is a great use for those empty toilet paper rolls! Even the youngest child will love to decorate the butterfly’s wings and there is no limit to what you can use around the house for this project. Feel free to give your child all the left over parts and pieces to other craft projects. Bits of string, fabric and other scrap paper can become beautiful wing adornments. Glitter glue, sequins, buttons and beads are fun to put on the wings as well. You will want to let them decorate the body (toilet paper roll) of the butterfly first so that if they have glued things to it, it will dry before they try to glue the wings on.

Paper Chain Caterpillar:

This is a great way to practice counting or pattern making. Simply cut various colors of construction paper into 1 inch strips and then loop them through each other as you glue them into rings. For the head of your caterpillar use a slightly wider strip of paper so you have room to add wiggly eyes, or to draw a face. When you are finished, two smaller strips of paper can be glued onto the head to form antennae. Head on over here to see step by step instructions and a photo of a finished caterpillar.

There is no limit to the amount of activities for children with a stack of construction paper and your imagination.