Love Bug Paper Plate Twirler – Valentines for Preschool
Welcome back to another lovely Paper Plate Twirler for Preschoolers. Our contributor shares with you today, how to make a gorgeous little LOVE BUG Paper Plate Twirler for Preschoolers. Not only do these Twirlers look adorable once decorating your classroom or child’s bedroom, but they are a great opportunity to strengthen fine motor skills (learn how to use that hole punch!) as well as explore shapes and how they go together (how creative can you get with your Love Bugs?). The results are adorable and perfect for any preschooler crafting this Valentine’s Day. We think this Love Bug Paper Plate Twirler makes a fabulous addition to our Valentines Day Crafts for Preschoolers, don’t you?? You may also love our Dragon Whirligig for Chinese New year, as well as our Night Star Paper Plate Whirligig (a great gift from a toddler to a newborn maybe?!).
Love Bug Paper Plate Twirler
Love is swirly and dizzying – so what better craft for Valentine’s Day that a Twirly Swirly Valentine’s Whirligig?!
We are slowly building up quite the collection of these easy yet enchanting crafts in our sunroom – we simply tape them up on the ceiling and they add a bit of interest and movement to the room without adding clutter.
The inspiration for these Valentine’s Whirligigs are Maggy’s super cute love bugs – I love how she used heart shapes to create the bodies of the bugs and thought it would be really cute to have a few love bugs adorning our craft. (The heart caterpillar has to be my favorite!)
These whirligigs are easy enough for your youngest crafters to help make – they might just paint a paper plate and leave the cutting to you – while older crafters can add more detail, like the kawaii faces in our Star Whirligig, or writing sweet messages that you need to twirl the whole whirligig to reveal.
While we used a heart hole punch to help create some of the shapes for our love bugs, you can freehand some small hearts or use heart-shaped confetti for the same effect.
We used up the rest of our paper plates to make these Stained-Glass Paper Plate Tambourines.
Materials to Make a Valentine’s Whirligig
- Construction paper, red and white
- Googly eyes
- Paper Plate (1 per whirligig)
- Baking twine or string
- Scissors
- Pink or red paint
- Paintbrushes
- Glue
- Heart hole punch
How to Make a Valentine’s Whirligig
Paint the top and bottom of the paper plate with the pink paint however you’d like. We decided to add a heart pattern just for fun.
Let dry completely as you prepare the love bugs.
Making your love bugs for Preschoolers
Cut out lots of hearts – cut some free hand as well as using a heart hole punch.
The heart hole punch is GREAT as a finger strengthening exercise for young kids.
Now get creative and make a mixture of different LOVE BUGS!! How can you combine your hearts to create you love bug creatures?!
You can punch out additional heart confetti to add to the whirligig.
Assembling your Love Bug Twirler
Cut the paper plate in a large spiral (as shown)
Glue the cute love bugs along the Whirligig. Let dry.
(If your love bugs are having a hard time sticking, you can use paper clips or clamps to hold them in place.)
Poke a hole in the top of the spiral and thread the twine or string through and tie a knot.
What it twirl round and round…
More Paper Plate Whriligigs from Red Ted Art
- Christmas Tree Twirler
- Autumn Tree Twirler
- Dragon Whirligig for Chinese New year
- and now of course the cute Paper Plat Star Whirligig
More great Valentines Crafts for Preschool:
Which includes more wonderful Valentine’s Paper Plate Crafts for Preschoolers: