DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Paper Plate Spaceship Porthole Craft

Contributed by Leanne Guenther

This paper plate porthole provides the perfect opportunity for kids to "see what's under the sea".  It's a good craft for an outer space theme.

Materials:

• paper plate,
• silver, white, gold or grey paint and paint brush
• cheerios -- you need about a dozen for the craft and, if your kids are anything like mine, half a box for nibbling on while making the craft!
• a drinking straw or a pretzel
• scissors,
• glue,
• one piece of blue construction paper or cardstock
• clear plastic (we used the clear half of a large ziploc bag)
• paper,
• printer,
• something to color with

Instructions:

• Cut a circle from the center of a paper plate.
• If making a porthole:  For the handle:
  • Glue cheerios to each end of a 2 inch length of a straw or a pretzel and then glue to the paper plate
     
    or
  • glue a milk carton cap and then glue to the paper plate.
• Glue cheerios around the outside of the plate as decorative “bolts”
• Paint the whole plate, including the cheerios silver, grey, white or gold.
• Let dry.
• Optional:  Glue a piece of clear plastic inside the paper plate to cover your porthole  (the clear half of large freezer Ziploc bags work well for this… I find saran wrap a bit too clingy and difficult to work with)

• Print out the template of choice.
• Color the template pieces if using the B&W version.
• Cut out the template.
• Glue the paper plate over the template so you can see it through the hole.

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Template (alien):                (color)   or   (B&W)

Template (astronaut):        (color)   or   (B&W)

Template (earth):               (color)   or   (B&W)

 

Cosmonaut Sergei K.  Krikalev, flight engineer for Expedition One, is positioned at a port hole on the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station.

Source: NASA International Space Station Imagery