10 Fantastic Paper Craft Ideas for Kids to Make and Play

Today we have a guest post from the fabulous Maggy Woodley of Red Ted Art. Maggy is sharing some fantastic paper craft ideas for kids to make and play with. These paper toys are a great STEAM activity that incorporates engineering and design all with a bit of paper.

In my experience, children value things they make with their own hands much more than purchased or gifted items. Do you have the same experience? For this reason, we prepared a number of easy crafts for kids with a common theme – all of the crafted items are meant to be used as a toy made by kids!

10 Fantastic Paper Craft Ideas for Kids to Make and Play

Supplies You’ll Need to Make the Paper Crafts

Cardstock paper
Origami paper
Paper tubes (from recycle bin)
Glue stick
Scissors

I get commissions for purchases made through the affiliate links in this post.

See each project below for the exact supplies needed.

Ready to make your first paper toy?

The first toy kids can make on their own is perfect as a summer camp or science fair project. We even prepared a printable template to make crafting paper fidget spinners faster and easier for kids.

Don’t forget the classic toys! They are worth calling a classic because kids have played with them through so many generations. And there is not a single toy that screams classic more than paper boats. They are super simple to make and one of our easy origami projects for kids.

Would you prefer crafting monsters or owls? Why not both? With our monster corner bookmark design, only a little tweaking is needed to make owls instead of monsters.

You wouldn’t believe how easy and fast it is to make a flying helicopters from paper! Give it a try with kids. They will surely love to make few of their own flying helicopters and use them for play with friends. This craft is so simple to make that we had to add it to our new Easy Paper Projects book!

Save a couple tissue boxes to make dinosaur feet! My kids are crazy about dinosaurs. Are yours the same? They will love wearing these after reading their favorite dino book.

Have you ever tried to make a marionette? If this is your first attempt, we suggest making fall leaves bird marionette. Easy, inexpensive and mostly with recycled materials.

We have a treat for unicorn lovers! Invite them to make colorful and fun unicorn pop-up cards. Great for birthdays, get well cards, or just about any occasion.

Who ever thought Frankenstein can be so much fun to play with?! Turn Frankenstein’s head into a cup to make this silly and fun Halloween paper toy.

In our house, there is always a lack of writing and drawing materials. Same happening to you? As a solution, kids made their own little emoji notebooks. So simple and easy! Best part? It’s made from a single sheet of paper and without any cutting and gluing. Give it a try!

Paper airplanes can be made in so many different ways! For a start, we prepared 4 different paper plane designs. Once kids perfect these, they can develop their own design.

Thanks, Maggy! These paper projects look like so much fun.

Have your kids made any of these paper crafts? I’m sure they loved both making and playing with them. I love how all of these paper crafts are simple and inexpensive to make.

If you are looking for more ideas for similar paper crafts, be sure to get a copy of my friend Maggy’s new book called Easy Paper Projects.

You are sure to find simple paper craft projects for everyday and seasonal crafting with kids. And the more kids craft, the more their imagination will grow. Crafting benefits fine motor skills as well as language development as they use their paper toys to retell old stories and make new ones. Get your copy today.

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