Monkey is a bit in love with The Lion king at the moment and actually that may be a bit of an understatement. He watched it so many times on holiday (usually on car journeys) that he is now parroting whole scenes at us.
“I stuffed, I ate like a pig – you are a pig” and “Look! Stamede! in the norge!” (Stampede in the gorge) His favourite is Scar (should we be worried?)”oh come on uncle scarf” “oh no no no no” “oh you are a naughty boy” and of course, he likes to roar, a lot! Another really funny phrase he has picked up on is where Timoon says a bug tastes like a pecan. He now randomly tells us his food tastes like “peacorn” lol. Not sure what that is supposed to taste like!
I do love The Lion King and we did encourage him to watch it (who doesn’t like singing along with Hakuna Matata??) but there is a limit to how many times I can watch it. What I did feel we could do instead though was make some Paper Plate Lions. I’ve never made any paper plate animals before and thought this was a good place to start, and capitalise on his current love of lions. (I know from previous loves that they never last long – in fact I think he may already be moving on to Monsters Inc!)
The paper plates we were using were pretty shiny, so I mixed some PVA glue in with the paint and thought that would help it stick. Sadly it didn’t and I assume I didn’t get the quantities right? I have never tried to paint on plasticky surfaces before and think I would try it with more glue next time! Anyway because that really wasn’t working I thought we should paint the back of one of the paper plates too – which worked much better.
While the paint was drying a little Monkey helped me cut some strips of orange card out for the main – he adores practising with his scissors and it is good for him to learn how to do it properly. We did have some that ended up being interesting shapes – but I have long ago learned that my perfectionist self has no real place with toddler/pre-school crafts! I then curled the strips of card a little with the scissors (think curling ribbon) which I think worked quite well.
I did try and stick some strips onto the plasticky plates too but they really refused to stick – but on the papery side it worked much better.
We had to leave them for a day to dry. I debated cutting out holes for eyes to make it a mask but Monkey said no when I suggested it. I asked if he wanted to draw eyes but he asked to stick some on. As we had run out of googly eyes I said I would draw them – at which point Monkey insisted I draw grumpy eyes and a grumpy face – not a smily face! (I said he likes Scar the best!!). He helped glue those on, made sure I made some ears, and drew on some cheeks (:)) and ouila! One Paper Plate Lion 🙂
Monkey adores it and loves running around making it roar at everyone! Just great fun 🙂
Do your kids like being lions? Do they come out with any funny phrases from films/tv?
Love this!! I think we did a similar craft in my Sunday school class. Thanks for sharing on #ToddlerFunFriday!
This is brilliant! I have a 4 month old right now but see all these ideas and mentally file them away for when she’s old enough. Thanks for sharing!
What a lovely idea!Since it’s chucking it down for us today I think I’ll give it a go!Uncle Scarf though,lol x #ftmob
Awww less him with “uncle Scarf!” Should you be worried? Not sure… Scar is quite entertaining as a character. Can you imagine a Disney film without a villain? It would last 5 minutes. They are all happy They get married. The end 🙂 x #ftmob
This is a great activity and so much scope to try out different animals too! Thanks so much for linking up to #imaginationmatters this week, maybe we’ll see you next week for our “In the Sky” theme too. If you could add the badge, that would be great
That lion looks so cute! It’s great that he is so in love with the movie, it’s a classic 🙂 #letkidsbekids
Love Monkey picking up on various phrases from The Lion King and telling you that his food tastes like a “peacorn” – so funny. That paper plate lion looks amazing – I have a similar problem with plasticky surfaces so if you manage to find the magic formula with paint and glue, let me know! Thanks for linking up to #ftmob 🙂
Oh wow this is so cool!!!! My daughter loves lions. This is such a great idea. It looks so realistic! 😀 x #toddlerapprovedtuesday
That is a fun idea, and along with the Lion King love, perfect for Monkey! xx
That’s a fab looking lion. Great idea for a simple craft. Nice to base the craft around something Monkey likes too.
Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids
He’s growing up so quickly! His lion is super. I’ve always had trouble getting paint to stick to shiny surfaces like cereal boxes too but didn’t realise pva could possibly help it stick – thanks x
We haven’t made any paper plate animals yet either 🙂 thank you for sharing your Monkey is very similar to my Monkey! #ToddlerApprovedTuesday x
This is great, simple but really effective. We do like paper plate crafts here (although do have the same problem with shiny plates!). #letkidsbekids
Arghhhhhh Lion! I’ve got a thing for lions at the moment and love being chased by imaginary ones! I’m sooo going to make one of these with my folks. Thanks for sharing! #LetKidsBeKids x
Now that is a work of art! It’s great he likes the Lion King – what a classic. I think I need to educate my one on the classics! #toddlerapprovedtuesday Sabrina xx
My lot love any animal that is loud, never will my kids be a quiet mouse or a rabbit…always a loud lion, dinosaur, elephant…you get the idea! I love these masks shall be making some in the future thanks for the inspiration and sharing on #ToddlerApprovedTuesday
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