18 March Crafts for Preschoolers (Easy Ideas)
18 March crafts for preschoolers, each with a picture and simple steps. Easy ideas for ages 3 to 5 using paper, paint, and glue.
March is mud and wind and the first real light after school, which is why kites and rainbows show up in the same week, and Dr. Seuss's birthday on March 2 brings out the striped hats. Here are 18 March crafts for preschoolers, each with a picture, supplies, and steps.
A three-year-old tears green paper for the shamrock and dabs a pom-pom-painted shamrock with no lines to stay inside. A five-year-old builds the paper plate rainbow in color order and ties the tail on the paper diamond kite, then wants to fly it the same afternoon.
Start here: three March crafts that always work
13 March crafts for preschoolers, with pictures
1. Paper plate rainbow
The child cuts a paper plate in half and fills the arc with colour bands in paint, tissue, buttons or pom poms, adding cotton ball clouds.
Fits March: Spring and St. Patrick's Day.
You need: 1 paper plate, red, orange, yellow, green and blue paint, cotton balls, glue
How to make it
- You cut the plate in half.
- Your child paints curved bands from the outside in: red, orange, yellow, green, blue.
- Let it dry.
- Glue cotton balls at each bottom corner as clouds.
2. Cotton ball sheep
The child glues cotton balls all over a paper plate or card body and adds a black face and legs.
Fits March: Spring and Easter.
You need: 1 small white paper plate, cotton balls, black paper, 2 googly eyes, glue
How to make it
- Your child glues cotton balls all over the plate as wool.
- You cut a black oval for the head and 2 black rectangles for legs.
- Glue the 2 rectangles under the bottom edge of the plate, one toward the left and one toward the right.
- Glue the oval on one side of the plate as the head.
- Glue the 2 googly eyes on the head.
3. Eggshell caterpillar garden
The child fills a row of eggshell halves in a carton with soil and cress or grass seed, adds a face, and watches the caterpillar grow green hair.
Fits March: Spring and Earth Day.
You need: a strip of egg carton cups, eggshell halves, potting soil, cress seed, 2 googly eyes, 1 green pipe cleaner
How to make it
- Set one eggshell half, open side up, in each cup.
- Spoon soil into each shell to below its rim, sprinkle with cress seed and water lightly.
- Stick 2 googly eyes on the front of the shell at one end.
- Bend the pipe cleaner into a V and push it into the soil of that shell as antennae.
- Wait for the sprouts.
4. Paper plate leprechaun
The child makes a leprechaun face on a paper plate with an orange beard (paint, tissue or paper strips) and a green hat.
Fits March: St. Patrick's Day and Paper plate.
You need: 1 white paper plate, orange paper, green paper, black paper, yellow paper, 2 googly eyes, black marker, glue
How to make it
- You cut orange strips. Your child glues them side by side around the bottom rim so they stick out past the edge as a beard.
- Cut a green hat and glue it at the top of the plate.
- Glue a black strip across the hat as a band and a yellow square in the middle as a buckle.
- Glue the 2 googly eyes in the middle of the plate.
- Draw a smile below the eyes with the marker.
5. Hatching chick
The child makes a chick that sits inside a cracked paper egg; the top half lifts on a paper fastener or fold to show it hatching.
Fits March: Easter and Farm.
You need: white construction paper, yellow construction paper, 1 small orange paper triangle, 1 brass paper fastener, black marker, glue
How to make it
- You cut a large egg from white paper and cut it in two with a zigzag line across the middle.
- Cut a yellow circle and glue it behind the bottom half so its top sticks up above the zigzag as the chick.
- Your child draws 2 dot eyes on the chick. Glue the orange triangle beak below them.
- You join the two halves with the fastener on one side, so the top swings open.
6. Paper plate umbrella
The child decorates half a paper plate as an umbrella, adds a J-shaped handle and sticks or paints raindrops around it.
Fits March: Weather and Umbrella and rain.
You need: 1 paper plate, purple and pink paint, black cardstock, blue paper, 1 sheet of white paper, glue
How to make it
- You cut the plate in half. Your child paints wide stripes on one half. Let it dry.
- Glue the half plate in the middle of the white sheet, flat edge down.
- Cut a black hook handle and glue it below the middle of the flat edge.
- Cut blue raindrops. Your child glues them around the umbrella.
7. Pom pom painted shamrock
The child dabs green paint over a shamrock shape with pom poms or cotton balls; with a stencil the shamrock appears when lifted.
Fits March: St. Patrick's Day.
You need: white cardstock, dark green poster paint, light green poster paint, 1 pom pom, clothespin to hold the pom pom, paper plate for the paint
How to make it
- You cut a shamrock from white cardstock, with 3 rounded leaves and a short stem.
- Pinch the pom pom in the clothespin and pour both greens onto the plate.
- Your child dabs the pom pom into dark green, then dots it all over the shamrock.
- Switch to light green and dab over the first dots so they overlap.
- Let it dry.
8. Pot of gold paper plate
The child paints half a paper plate black as a pot, glues on gold coins or yellow circles and adds a rainbow handle.
Fits March: St. Patrick's Day and Rainbow.
You need: 1 paper plate, black paint, yellow paper, white paper, red, yellow, green and blue markers, glue stick
How to make it
- You cut the plate in half. Your child paints one half black. Let it dry.
- Cut yellow circles as coins. Glue them along the straight edge, some poking above it and some on the plate, overlapping.
- Cut a curved white strip and colour it in rainbow stripes with the markers.
- Glue the rainbow in an arch over the coins, one end at each top corner.
9. Rainbow windsock
The child paints or wraps a cardboard tube, glues on rainbow streamers and hangs it up to blow in the wind.
Fits March: St. Patrick's Day and Toilet paper roll.
You need: 1 toilet paper roll, light blue paint, crepe paper streamers in rainbow colours, cotton balls, twine, glue
How to make it
- Your child paints the roll light blue. Let it dry.
- Glue the streamers inside the bottom edge in rainbow order.
- Glue cotton balls in a clump on the side as a cloud.
- You make 2 holes near the top and tie a loop of twine through them for hanging.
10. Letter K kite
The child glues a K to paper and adds diamond paper kites with string tails flying from its arms.
Fits March: Kite and Letter K.
You need: blue construction paper, red paper, white yarn, yellow paper, white paper, glue stick
How to make it
- You cut a large capital K from blue paper and a red diamond. Your child glues the K on the white sheet.
- Glue the red diamond on the tip of the upper right arm of the K.
- Glue the white yarn from the bottom point of the diamond down along the arm as the kite tail.
- Cut small yellow bows and glue them along the yarn.
11. Torn paper shamrock
The child tears shades of green paper and glues them over a shamrock outline.
Fits March: St. Patrick's Day.
You need: 1 sheet of white cardstock, black marker, light green paper, dark green paper, glue stick
How to make it
- You draw a large shamrock outline with 3 rounded leaves and a short stem on the cardstock.
- Your child tears the light and dark green paper into small pieces.
- Rub glue stick inside the outline.
- Your child presses the pieces inside the outline, mixing the two greens, until it is mostly filled.
12. Pasta kite
The child glues spaghetti into a diamond outline, adds a string tail with bow-tie pasta bows and paints it.
Fits March: Kite and Letter K.
You need: dry spaghetti, dry bow-tie pasta, white string, red and yellow poster paint, white glue, light blue paper
How to make it
- Glue 4 spaghetti pieces on the blue paper as a diamond outline. Glue 2 more across the inside as a cross.
- Let the glue dry well.
- Your child paints the inside of the diamond red.
- Glue the string from the bottom point of the diamond, curving down the page as a tail.
- Glue bow-tie pasta along the string and dab them with yellow paint.
13. Paper diamond kite
The child decorates a paper diamond with crayons, stickers or tissue, then adds a yarn tail with paper bows.
Fits March: Kite and Letter K.
You need: yellow construction paper, light blue paper, crayons, 1 long piece of brown yarn, paper strips for bows, glue
How to make it
- You cut a large diamond from yellow paper. Your child decorates it with crayon scribbles and a few shapes.
- Glue it near the top of the light blue sheet with one point down.
- Glue the yarn from the bottom point down the sheet in a loose wavy line as the tail.
- Pinch paper strips in the middle into small bows. Your child glues them along the tail.
Nothing matches that filter. Clear it and try again.
March crafts for 3 year olds
These 3 need no exact cutting and no small pieces, so a young three can do most of it alone: Cotton ball sheep, Pom pom painted shamrock, Torn paper shamrock.
Doing March crafts with a 3 year old
The torn paper shamrock and the pom pom painted shamrock are the two to do first. Tearing green paper and dabbing a pom pom in paint are both things a three year old does alone. Draw the outline and step back.
The paper plate rainbow is the one for a four year old. Lay the colors out in order, red first, and let them fill one band at a time with tissue, buttons or paint. Cotton ball clouds on the ends hide any messy edges.
The kites need wind. Make the paper diamond kite or the rainbow windsock on a quiet day, then take it outside the next breezy afternoon. The pasta kite stays indoors, it is for looking at.
The eggshell caterpillar garden takes a week to grow, so start it early in the month. Rinse the shells, add soil and seed, and let your child water it with a spoon each morning they remember.
What you need for March crafts
Most of these use the same handful of supplies: glue, paper plate, cotton ball, googly eye, yellow paper, black marker, white paper, glue stick. Everything else is named on the craft it belongs to.
Free · 30 questions · about 4 minutes Before you go: see where your child is for kindergarten A report with every area at a glance, what to focus on first, and things to do at home. Get my child's free report →More crafts for preschoolers
- St. Patrick's Day crafts for preschoolers
- April crafts for preschoolers
- Spring crafts for preschoolers
- Paper plate crafts for preschoolers
- Rainbow crafts for preschoolers
- Weather crafts for preschoolers
- Kite crafts for preschoolers
- Letter K crafts for preschoolers
- All crafts for preschoolers, by theme, holiday and letter