Paper Plate Sheep Mask for Kids

Make a sheep or lamb mask as a lovely Spring, Easter, Australian, farmyard or nativity craft activity for kids. It’s also a fun craft to go along with the nursery rhyme Mary Had A Little Lamb.

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With last week being JJ’s first week of school, it was also my toddler Bee’s first week of one-on-one time at home. And how did we spend it?

By making sheep masks of course! Or more specifically ewe and lamb masks, because… adorable!

The problem is that I can’t decide which photo is the cutest. This one?

Or this one?

No, no, I’ve got it. It has to be this one.

Awww!

To make them, I cut the inner circle out of two paper plates – a dinner size plate for the ewe mask, and a snack size plate for the lamb mask. I put out some paste and cotton wool balls, and asked my 2 year & 4 month old toddler Bee to stick them on.

Bee chattered as she went. “Dip, dip, dip, stick. Now Mummy’s turn. Now turn me. Dip, dip, dip in glue, and stick on mask. This Mummy sheep mask. That baby sheep mask. Dip, dip, dip….” and so on, in that endless way that only toddlers can.

Bee really got into this craft actually. She was very heavy handed with her dipping, so that a LOT of glue ended up on the paper plate. And she kept wanting to stick more and more cotton wool balls on, so we ended up with very, very woolly sheep! (A Aussie merino perhaps?)

It took a couple of days for all that glue to dry. This above photo was taken about 12 hours or so after we’d finished gluing. I think turning the masks over like this helped to quicken the process by allowing more airflow. (If you don’t have a few days to wait, you might like to try these yarn wrapped woolly sheep instead).

Once they were dry, I cut out some ears (from the middle part of paper plates) and glued them onto the back. Because our masks were so heavy due to being chock-a-block full of cotton balls, I also stuck some harder cardboard to the back to stiffen it a little bit. (I imagine you wouldn’t need to do this is you were a bit more conservative with your cotton wool and glue usage though.)

And then have your toddler hold them up and say “Baaa”!

Sheep crafts like this can also be used to celebrate Easter, Christmas or even as a lovely Spring activity for kids. They’re not native to Australia, but we do have a thriving wool industry, so they can work as an Australian craft activity too. And they’re perfect to make while singing along to nursery rhymes like Mary Had a Lamb or Little Bo Peep.

And of course, once they are made, you can then play with them! DIY dress-ups! Actually that’s why we made two – so that the girls can role play being a mother ewe and baby lamb for a bit of imaginative farmyard animal play. (We already have a set of DIY zoo animal masks, and I have a funny feeling that I may be coaxed into making a few other animal ones as well…)

We made our sheep masks around the time of Chinese New Year (for the Year of the Sheep), but you could also make them for Spring or Christmas nativity, or any time of year really!

For more arty crafty ideas, we have lots more on our Art & Craft for Kids page, including:

• how to make an easy lion mask (an idea that was actually inspired by this post!)
• koala (and baby koala joey) craft, that can double as a mask if you want.
• easy (and fun) tp roll monster craft

I also collect lots more fun ideas on my Cool Kids Craft Ideas and Animal Crafts for Kids boards on Pinterest.

And, of course, you can always subscribe to our newsletter, to receive our latest ideas via email.

xx Danya

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