Paper Plate Snowman: Easy Kids Winter Craft and FREE Template

This fun and adorable paper plate snowman is the perfect winter craft for preschool kids! Grab the FREE Template and Directions.

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Here is one fun, simple, and adorable winter craft you can make with your kids. It’s designed for preschool-age kids, but even older kids can have fun and get creative with this paper plate snowman! The Free template comes with all the pieces you need to complete this craft.

See all our Winter Activities Here.

Winter is so Cold!

If you’re anything like me, you find winter to be a mixed bag of a season. On one hand, it’s a time of festive holidays and family togetherness. But, on the other hand, it can be a bit of a downer. Between the short days that deprive you of sunlight and the frosty temperatures that make staying outside for long a feat (or an impossibility, depending on where you live) . . . it can be a rough period to get through. 

Kids, especially ones who are used to ripping and running around outside with their friends, can get bored and restless very easily during the winter months. 

It doesn’t have to be that way, though! There are so many ways you and your kids can keep yourselves entertained even when you’re stuck indoors. 

Keeping Kids Entertained During Winter

One thing you can do as a family during winter is head to the kitchen and whip up some delicious treats (like this S’mores Reindeer Treat Cake Jar. You can also make a Snowman Sensory Bottle or play board games. Some of our favorites are Monopoly, Scrabble, Bananagrams, and Clue (all of which have simplified versions for preschool-age kids). We also love having story time together, this Snowman at Night book is a favorite, and the pictures make winter look so bright and cheery. 

But do you want to know what we do the most when we’re stuck indoors? 

Arts and crafts! They keep the kids busy and let them explore their creative side!

Making Time for Arts and Crafts

The reason we love arts and crafts in our family is because there’s an infinite variety of projects we can do — and more are created every day! Thanks to Pinterest, YouTube, and blogs like this one, we have a world full of inspiration, fueled purely by creativity and resourcefulness. 

Arts and crafts time can be as simple or as extravagant as we want it to be. And it’s so easy to fit it into pockets of our day. Need something that will only take a few minutes? There’s something for you! Need something that will keep the kids occupied for an hour? There’s things like that, too!

Stocking Your Crafting Inventory

Another thing we enjoy about arts and crafts is that it’s something you can do even on a really tight budget. Even a quick trip to your local dollar store or crafting store will have you walking out with enough materials to keep your hours! And you’d be surprised at the different projects you can whip up with a small supply of crafting essentials. 

Here are some of the arts and crafts materials we like to keep on hand: 

• Pens (including gel pens)
• Pencils
• Paper of all sorts (construction paper, cardstock, paper bags, blank card, contact paper, paper plates, printer paper. etc)
• Kid Friendly Scissors
• Glue
• Fabric (cotton, felt, ribbon, etc)
• Glitter
• String of some sort (yarn, twine, etc)
• Pom poms
• Googly eyes
• Buttons
• Coloring utensils (crayons, markers, color pencils, etc)
• Play Doh or clay
• Cookie cutters
• Paint (watercolor, acrylic, finger paint, etc)
• Paint brushes of varying sizes
• Cotton balls
• Recycled materials (cardboard, toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, empty egg cartons, etc)
• Hole punch
• Hot glue gun (and hot glue gun sticks)
• Pipe cleaners
• Stencils 
• Rubber stamps
• Stickers

Paper Plate Snowman Winter Craft for Preschool Kids (and Beyond)

List of Supplies:

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• Colored Craft Papers (This is my favorite craft paper because it holds up to kids gluing)
  • Blue, Green, White, Orange, and your choice of colors for the snowman’s hat and scarf
• 1 Paper Plate
• 1 Small Pom Pom
• Cotton Balls
• Small Buttons
• Permanent Marker
• Craft glue
• Pencil
• Scissors

Instructions:

For your convenience, printable directions are included with the craft template download that’s available towards the end of this post.

NOTES:

• The template comes with two styles of trees so you can choose which type to use. One style requires little cuts on the sides of the tree, the other is a single curved side that is easier for young children to do on their own.
• The eyes, nose, and arms are small and may be difficult to cut out. You may choose to cut them out for your child, or not use those template pieces and use a permanent pen to draw them on the craft instead.
• The template also includes a CLASSROOM SET so you can print several of the same template piece on one piece of paper. With this set, you have the option of printing the template pieces out on colored paper and skipping the coloring portion of the directions.

Step 1

Option 1: Print the snowman craft template out on white paper, color the template pieces, and cut out the template or

Option 2: Print the template out, cut out the template pieces, and trace on craft paper, then cut the pieces.

Option 3: Print the classroom set template pages out on colored paper, then cut out the pieces.

Suggested Snowman Template Colors

• Snowman-White
• Snowman Nose-Orange
• Snowman Arms-Brown
• Snowman Scarf and Hat-You Choose What Color
• Trees-Green
• Top of Trees-White

Step 2

Take a paper plate and cover the inside surface of the plate with blue paper. Fluff up some cotton balls and glue them along the bottom and side of the paper plate to make the snow.

Step 3

Glue the carrot, eyes, hat, and pom pom to the snowman’s head and paper plate (small circle).

Glue the arms, scarf, and buttons to the snowman’s body (large circle).

Step 4

Glue the trees to the blue paper and let kids add any winter-themed decorations they want to make their winter scene complete.

This is the perfect time to make snowflakes, add white dots, or glitter.

If you and your family enjoy this activity, be sure to share it with others. Want to come back to it later? Pin it to your Pinterest board!