Get crafty with the DUCK Lab! Each Friday, trained research assistants from the UNCG Psychology Department’s DUCK Lab will guide at-home crafts for children ages 3 to 12. Parents can join too to learn fun facts about crafts that foster age-appropriate skills or learn about the DUCK Lab’s nonprofit child development research projects.
This Friday, the DUCK Lab invites all school-age friends to join Kimmy and make a paper plate sunshine! Follow along as Kimmy takes you through each step and watch your work bring a little brightness to your day!
Parents, did you know?
This craft is best for school-age kids because it requires a longer attention span to follow step-by-step directions! Read on below for more info. about the connection between these types of activities and age-appropriate developmental milestones.
We also invite you to check out our child development research opportunities, which are now modified for the virtual world! Please click here to learn more or sign up to participate with us.
Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
Supplies:
Half of a paper plate
Markers (or other decorations like foam shapes)
6-7 strips of construction paper, ribbon, or string
6-7 Clothespins
Glue or glue dots
Optional: 2 Googly eyes
Directions:
Cut out the strips of construction paper in various colors. Fold the strips into a small square, and then take the folds apart.
Use the glue dots to attach each strip to the bottom (the straight edge) of the plate. Attach the strips to the back of the plate.
Clip on the clothespins to the top and sides (the rounded part) of your paper plate.
Use the markers or foam shapes to decorate a face on the paper plate.
Use glue dots to attach googly eyes to the paper plate.
The DUCK Lab: Paper Plate Sunshine
Relation to Developmental Science:
By middle to late childhood, children develop longer attention spans. In the classroom, this means they can likely follow along with a complicated math problem with many steps. In the craft setting, this same skill means that they can follow a longer set of directions at once, including repetitive actions. This is a craft that puts these skills into practice. For example, this craft calls for repetitive steps (folding seven strips, attaching seven strips, and pinning on seven clothespins). For younger children, these activities might take more time and might quickly bore them. For older children, a longer attention span may allow them to perform these actions without being easily distracted or bored. This craft also provides a great time to talk about the weather and how rainbows occur: parents can talk about how rainbows are formed when sunlight reflects through raindrops, including what it means when light “reflects” off of something.
**Great for older children!**
The DUCK Lab is a partner in the nonprofit Child Development Research Center in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. They conduct studies of social and cognitive development with 2- to 12- year-olds. Families who participate in their research studies are volunteers in the Greensboro community who generously offer their time to help support research and training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.