Preschoolers like making things to give to their parents. Help them create a cat picture with a paper plate. Add a circle cut from construction paper for a nose. Color in eyes. Add triangles on the top of the plate for ears. For whiskers, glue on pipe cleaners, having them extend out from the nose. Add the child’s name and the date. Punch a hole in the top of the plate for a yarn tie to hang up the cat plate. Create a “C is for Cat” alphabet hanging. Glue a picture of a cat onto a paper plate or a piece of construction paper. Above it, add “C is for Cat.” Let the preschoolers color around the edges of the picture to create a frame.
No need to wait for a holiday. Create wreaths with a cat theme. Start with a wreath circle cut from cardboard or use a ring of Styrofoam. Download a variety of cat pictures in various positions. Wrap the wreath with wide ribbon. Glue cat pictures all around the ring of the wreath. Add a bow. For a Christmas wreath, wrap the ring with red and green ribbon. Add small ornaments or greenery. Add a large red bow at the bottom of the ring. Right above the bow, tuck in large a regal cat posed looking outward.
Children love to pretend to be something else. Let preschoolers pretend to be cats after making cat masks. For a paper plate mask, add triangles for ears and either draw on whiskers or glue on pipe cleaners. Cut holes for the eyes and nose. Punch holes on either side of the paper plate to fasten elastic cord. Make the mask more familiar by using pictures of the family’s pet cat. Use pictures in which the cat faces the person who took the photograph. Enlarge the picture to fit a paper plate, and glue. Cut out the eyes, nose and mouth, leaving the rest of the picture as is. Add strings to tie in place.
Provide different sizes of circles or triangles. Help preschoolers create a cat with all circles, starting with a large circle for the body, a smaller one for the face, little circles for eyes and nose, and a series of circles for the tail. Create a cat with triangles and create a cat craft using a combination of triangles and circles. Glue onto heavy-weight paper. Add the child’s name and date.
Puppets are fun for preschoolers. Use a paper bag to create a cat. Add triangles for ears and pipe cleaners for whiskers. Draw in eyes, nose and mouth. You can also provide outlines of cats for the preschoolers to color and cut out. Glue onto cardboard and add a craft stick to the back to create stick cat craft puppets.