Make a Paper Plate Porthole

What You Need:

• Two paper plates
• Stapler
• Clear plastic laminate
• Crayons
• Blue paint
• Ocean stickers or collage materials (optional)

What You Do:

1. Help your kindergartener cut out the middle of one paper plate, leaving the outer rim intact.
2. Draw a circle on the plastic laminate that is about one inch larger than the circle you just cut from the first paper plate. Help your child glue the laminate to the rim of the cut paper plate, creating a window.
3. Let your child decorate the front of the second paper plate with crayons, stickers, or collage materials. Look at books or pictures of different ocean animals and scenes. What might your child observe if he looked out the window of a real submarine?
4. Use blue watercolor paint or dilute blue tempera paint with water to create a thin “wash.” Let your kindergartener brush the paint over his picture to create the illusion of water.
5. When both plates are dry, help your child staple the plates together along the outside edges. Position the plates so they are flush, with a pocket of space between them.

Submarines are pretty amazing because they can submerge underwater. How would the view differ on a submarine window than say, your bedroom window? Talk to your child about the differences between land and ocean animals. Extend this project by making a sorting book. Take a file folder and label one side “ocean animals” and the other side “land animals.” Look through magazines and cut out different animal pictures. Help your child sort the animal pictures and glue them to the file folder.