Fun & Easy Crafts Inspired By The Animal Kingdom

Crafting and art projects are a fantastic way to keep children entertained while engaging in skills development and education.

Using art to learn about animals is commonly used by educators for this purpose.

Engaging the creative side of the brain while learning about the amazing animals of the world will also help with knowledge retention.

Here are some fun and easy craft projects inspired by the animal kingdom for you and your children to enjoy.

Plastic Spoon Peacock

Peacocks are one of the most majestic, colorful birds in the animal kingdom.

Creating a plastic spoon peacock is a great way to make a creative art installation that you’ll want to put up permanently in your home.

You can find the full instructions for this project in the Craft Whack blog on peacock craft ideas.

You can also try this with other types of colorful birds, like the parrot or macaw.

Use the same format to create a colorful turkey decoration for your Thanksgiving display in the fall. 

Plastic Animal Pop Art

Does your child have more plastic animal toys than they’ll ever possibly use?

Or, are you looking for a creative way to celebrate their love of animals in their bedroom decor?

You can upcycle cheap plastic animals to make colorful pop art. All you need for this craft is a few small canvases, brightly colored paint, super glue, Mod Podge gloss, and a heated knife.

Let your child pick the colors and do the painting, using the Mod Podge to help the paint adhere to the plastic toys.

Your job will be to cut the plastic animals in half by heating your knife and cutting through, then super gluing the creations to the canvas.

Once your project is complete, hang them on the wall in an artistic block format a la Andy Warhol.

Upcycled Honey Bear Vases

The next time you go through a jar of honey, keep the bear-shaped bottle for arts and crafts.

You can easily upcycle these bottles into vases for flower arrangements.

Your child can use these for gifts and even grow their own wildflowers to put inside.

To upcycle your beer bottle, use Mod Podge gloss and acrylic paint or plastic-friendly spray paint.

Consider adding a touch of luxury with a monochromatic coating and gold paint dip for a unique conversation piece.

Paper Bag Puppets

One of the best ways to get your kids unplugged from technology and using their imaginations is to encourage an old-fashioned puppet show.

Collect a bunch of small paper bags, construction paper, scissors, glue, and markers, and work with your child to create a menagerie of animals.

As your child creates the animals, share fun facts about them and have your child make up a name and backstory.

Then, repurpose an old cardboard box as a makeshift puppet theater. You can even record some of their shows so they can watch them later.

Cardboard Animal Masks

Similar to making puppets, your child can also repurpose old cereal boxes to make animal masks.

You’ll need scissors, a basic template, a hole punch, and string or elastic.

Keep these masks stored somewhere safe for rainy days or friend gatherings.

Animal Book Corners

Book corners are a type of bookmark that slide over the top corner of the page, protecting the pages from dog ears.

Creating the corners takes a simple origami fold that’s easy for both adults and children to master. 

Grab some construction paper or colored origami paper and start folding. Then, use markers and other paper cuttings to create animal faces.

These easy crafts are a great classroom gift or traditional Valentine’s alternative. You can even donate extras to the local library.  

Sea Creature Paper Mosaics

For a preschool-friendly craft that requires minimal adult supervision, try some sea creature paper mosaics.

Cut out small squares of multi-colored tissue paper for your child to use.

Print out some outlines of sea creatures, provide a glue stick, and leave them for hours of fun. 

The goal is to stick the little squares of tissue paper inside the template for a mosaic effect.

You can also print the outlines on semi-transparent vellum paper for some faux stained glass. 

Use these simple animal kingdom-inspired crafts to pass the time, develop creativity, and explore the world from the comfort of your own home.