Paper Plate Cow

William's cow.  He had a lot of help placing the pieces to glue.

Natalie's cow.  She did it almost completely by herself.  I love how she painted on eyes and a mouth and the alternating colors on the legs. 

We hosted a Sandra Boynton play date which mostly focused on farm animals from Barnyard Dance. I planned for us to make paper plate cows, but we ran out of time, so I did them with the kids later on our own. 

What You Need:

• paper plate
• card stock
• scissors
• glue stick
• printer (if using cow template like I did)
• brown and/or black paint
• circle stampers or sponges

What to do:

1. Before hand, print (or draw) the cow parts.  
2. Cut out the pieces.  Chances are your child is too young to cut all the pieces out well, so I recommend doing this in advance, too.  
3. First, glue the cow pieces on to the plate.  
4. Paint on spots.  

William hugging his cow.

Extras:

• If you need less mess, you could cut out construction paper spots to glue on instead.  
• Draw a face.
• Glue on googly eyes.
• Glue on a few strands of Easter basket grass, real grass, or cut construction paper to the mouth.
• Cut out a paper bell and glue it on the neck.  
• Tie a real bell on with a piece of yarn or ribbon.  
• Add an utter (with pink construction paper or pink paint)

Extensions:

• Read some cow books!  Barnyard Dance, Counting Cows, Click Clack Moo, Cow Loves Cookies, Kiss the Cow, etc.
• Count the spots.
• Talk about (compare and contrast) the size and shape of the spots.  
• Identify the parts of the cow.  Point out the ones people have versus the ones only cows / animals have.   
• Go to the farm and see some cows!
• Sing Old MacDonald. 
• Name your cow and write the name on a collar or bell. 
• Have your story dictate a story about your cow as you transcribe.  If you hang up the cow, hang the story with it.