If you’re looking for a simple paper plate brown bear craft to pair with a bear theme or Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, I created this free printable craft template to make the activity easy to prepare at home or in the classroom.
With a paper plate, brown paint, and the printable bear pieces, children can turn an ordinary paper plate into an adorable brown bear. I especially love activities like this because they combine storytime with hands-on learning while giving preschool and kindergarten children opportunities to practice cutting, gluing, coloring, and following directions.
You can use this brown bear craft during a Brown Bear, Brown Bear book study, animal theme, letter B unit, zoo theme, forest animal unit, or simply as a fun preschool craft.
And because I know teachers and parents don’t always have time for complicated prep, I included both a full-color bear template and a blackline template. Choose whichever version works best for your children or students.
Easy Paper Plate Brown Bear Craft for Preschool and Kindergarten
Paper plate crafts are one of my favorite types of activities to create because you can turn such a simple supply into so many different things.
For this paper plate brown bear craft, the paper plate becomes the bear’s head. Children paint it brown and then add the printable ears, eyes, muzzle, and nose.
The finished craft is simple enough for younger children while still giving them plenty to do themselves.
It can help children practice:
- Fine motor skills
- Scissor skills
- Hand-eye coordination
- Gluing and positioning
- Following step-by-step directions
- Color recognition
- Creative expression
If you’re using this craft after reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, it also gives children a hands-on way to revisit one of the animals from the story.
What’s Included in the Free Brown Bear Craft Template?
I created the printable with two versions so you can choose the one that fits your activity and the amount of prep time you have available.
Color Brown Bear Template
The color template is ready to cut and assemble.
The bear pieces are already colored in shades of brown, tan, black, and white, so this is a good option when you want to make the activity a little quicker.
Children can concentrate on cutting out the pieces and assembling their bear.
Blackline Brown Bear Template
I also included a black-and-white version that children can color, paint, or decorate themselves.
This version adds another creative step to the activity and can be especially useful for an art center or when you want children to make their bears a little more individual.
The printable includes the pieces needed to complete the bear’s face, including:
- Outer and inner ears
- Eyes
- Muzzle
- Nose
Once the pieces are prepared, children simply add them to their painted paper plate to create the finished bear.
Supplies for Your Paper Plate Brown Bear Craft
You only need a few basic art supplies for this project.
Brown Bear Craft Supplies
- 9-inch paper plate
- Brown washable paint
- Paintbrush
- Printable Brown Bear craft template
- Crayons, markers, or paint for the blackline template, optional
- Child-safe scissors
- Glue
I recommend printing the template pieces onto white cardstock when possible. Cardstock makes the pieces a little sturdier, especially after children cut and glue them.
Regular printer paper will work too, so there is no need to make an extra trip to the store if that’s what you already have available.
How to Make a Paper Plate Brown Bear
Once you have everything printed and ready, assembling your brown bear is easy.
Step 1: Paint the Paper Plate Brown
Start with a plain 9-inch paper plate.
Have children paint the front of the paper plate brown. Depending on the paint you use, you may want to apply one or two light coats.
Set the plate aside and allow it to dry completely.
Step 2: Choose Your Brown Bear Template
Next, decide whether you want to use the color or blackline version of the printable.
For a quicker activity, use the color pieces.
For a more creative art activity, give children the blackline version and let them color or paint their own pieces.
Step 3: Color or Paint the Bear Pieces
If you’re using the blackline template, children can color the ears, muzzle, and other pieces with crayons or markers.
You can also let children paint the pieces.
If you choose paint, allow the pieces to dry completely before cutting them out.
Step 4: Cut Out the Brown Bear Pieces
Carefully cut around each piece of the printable template.
Younger preschoolers may need adult assistance with some of the smaller pieces, while older preschool and kindergarten children may be able to cut most of the pieces independently.
Step 5: Add the Bear’s Ears
Glue one ear behind each side of the top of the brown paper plate.
Placing the ears behind the plate helps them look like they are naturally peeking out from the bear’s head.
Step 6: Make the Brown Bear’s Face
Glue the two eyes onto the front of the plate.
Next, position the large muzzle toward the lower center of the bear’s face and glue it into place.
Step 7: Add the Nose
Glue the black nose near the top center of the muzzle.
Now your bear’s face is complete!
Step 8: Let Your Brown Bear Dry
Allow the glue to dry before displaying or handling the finished craft.
You now have an easy paper plate brown bear craft that can be displayed on a bulletin board, added to a book study, or sent home with children.
Use This Brown Bear Craft With Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
This craft makes an especially fun extension after reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Instead of finishing the story and immediately moving on to something else, children can continue exploring the story through a hands-on activity.
You could read the book together first and then ask children what animal appears first in the story.
Brown Bear!
Then bring out the paper plates and let everyone create their own bear.
While children are working, you can talk about the animals and colors they remember from the story. This creates a natural opportunity to practice recall and sequencing without turning the activity into another worksheet.
Brown Bear Books to Read With Your Craft
Books and crafts make a wonderful combination for preschool and kindergarten. Reading the story first gives children something familiar to connect with while they create.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle
This is the obvious book to pair with your paper plate brown bear.
Children meet a colorful collection of animals throughout the story, making it useful for practicing animal names, colors, sequencing, prediction, and repetitive language.
After reading, make the brown bear craft and see how many of the other animals children can remember.
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
Bear Snores On is another fun choice if you’re using the craft as part of a general bear theme.
It can open the door to conversations about bears, winter, hibernation, friendship, and woodland animals.
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
If you want to turn your bear theme into a full day of activities, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is another fun read-aloud.
Pair it with movement by letting children pretend to travel through the different environments from the story before settling down to make their bear craft.
Turn Your Brown Bear Craft Into a Learning Activity
Your finished bear doesn’t have to be only an art project.
There are several easy ways to add early learning skills without taking away the fun.
Practice the Letter B
Use the craft during a letter B lesson and talk about the beginning sound in bear and brown.
Ask children to think of other words beginning with B.
You could even write a large uppercase and lowercase Bb on the back of the finished plate.
Practice Colors
If you’re reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, use the craft to introduce or review colors.
Ask questions such as:
- “What color is our bear?”
- “What other colors do you remember from the story?”
- “What animal was red?”
- “What animal was yellow?”
This makes the craft an easy extension of the literacy activity.
Practice Story Sequencing
After reading the book, see how many animals children can remember.
Older preschoolers and kindergarteners can try placing pictures of the animals in the correct story order.
This is a simple way to work on memory, comprehension, and sequencing.
Get My Brown Bear, Brown Bear Activities in My TPT Shop
If your children or students love this craft, you can continue the learning with my Brown Bear, Brown Bear activities in my TPT shop.
I created the larger activity pack for preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary classrooms so teachers and homeschool families can turn this favorite picture book into a complete literacy and learning theme.
The resource includes over 90 pages of Brown Bear activities, with a combination of no-prep worksheets, hands-on activities, literacy practice, crafts, and story extensions.
Activities include:
- Story sequencing
- “What Do You See?” activities
- Sentence building
- Beginning sounds
- Letter activities
- Handwriting practice
- Word tracing
- Write the Room
- Word searches
- Color activities
- Color sorting
- Alphabet activities
- Fine motor activities
- Writing pages
- Directed drawing
- Printable games
- Vocabulary activities
- Word wall resources
- And more
This makes it easy to take one familiar read-aloud and extend it across several learning centers or lessons.
You can use the activities for morning work, literacy centers, small groups, early finishers, homeschool lessons, story extensions, or your complete Brown Bear book study.
Get the complete Brown Bear, Brown Bear Activities Pack in my TPT shop.
More Printable Activities to Add to Your Brown Bear Theme
You don’t have to stop with the paper plate craft.
A Brown Bear theme can easily be turned into several days of playful learning.
Try adding:
- Brown Bear coloring pages
- Animal color matching
- Beginning sound activities
- Animal vocabulary cards
- Story sequencing cards
- Brown Bear writing prompts
- Letter B worksheets
- Color-by-code pages
- Animal counting activities
- Brown Bear puzzles
- Story retelling activities
For preschoolers, I would keep the activities short and varied. A read-aloud followed by a craft, movement activity, and simple printable gives children several different ways to interact with the same theme.
Ideas for Displaying Your Finished Paper Plate Bears
Don’t hide those bears in a backpack as soon as they’re finished!
A classroom full of paper plate bears can make a cute bulletin board display.
You could create a “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” bulletin board and arrange the children’s bears around the title.
For a letter B theme, try a heading such as:
“B Is for Brown Bear!”
Homeschool families can also hang the finished bear near a reading area or use it as part of a book-themed display.
Pin This Paper Plate Brown Bear Craft for Later
Planning a Brown Bear theme for later in the school year?
Save this paper plate brown bear craft to Pinterest so you can easily find the free printable template when you need it.
It would be a great activity to save to your:
- Brown Bear activities board
- Preschool crafts board
- Kindergarten activities board
- Book companion activities board
- Letter B activities board
- Paper plate crafts board
- Preschool animal theme board
Then you’ll have the printable ready when your next Brown Bear lesson rolls around.
Get Your Free Paper Plate Brown Bear Craft Template Here
Ready to make your own brown bear?
I created this free printable paper plate brown bear craft template to make preparation as easy as possible for parents, homeschool families, and teachers.
The download includes both a color template and a blackline template, so you can choose the version that works best for your activity.
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Print your template, grab a paper plate and some brown paint, and you’re ready to create!
Paper Plate Brown Bear Craft: A Simple Storytime Extension
I created this paper plate brown bear craft because simple hands-on activities can add so much to a preschool or kindergarten book study.
Children aren’t only making something cute to take home. They’re cutting, gluing, painting, following directions, recalling a story, talking about colors, and strengthening important fine motor skills along the way.
Pair the free craft template with Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and my set of free printable Brown Bear printables or my full set and you have an easy book-themed lesson that can work for homeschool, preschool, kindergarten, literacy centers, or storytime.
And when you’re ready to extend the story even further, be sure to check out my complete Brown Bear, Brown Bear activities in my TPT shop for even more literacy, math, fine motor, and story-inspired fun.
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