1.
Begin the paper plate leprechaun by making the hat. Cut a square from
the green paper, the size you would like the hat to be. Next, cut a
thin rectangular strip of green construction paper for the brim of the
hat. Make this a little longer than the green square which will be the
hat. Also, you will need to cut a long rectangular strip of black
construction paper for the trim on the hat. This should be the same
width as the green square hat. To make the buckle, use yellow, gold, or
orange construction paper. Take a small scrap, and fold it in half and
cut a rectangle. Along the fold, you can cut out the inside to make a
hollow rectangle. Glue all the pieces in place, and then glue the hat
to the plate.

2. The next step is to make the eyes. I used
three coins as templates for tracing, a quarter, penny, and a dime. I
used the quarter to trace a circle in black, the penny to trace a
circle in white, and the dime to trace a circle in blue. Then, you can
use a hole punch to punch out a tiny circle in white for the center of
the eye. All these circles then get glued on top of one another,
biggest to smallest, to make the eyes. Then, glue the eyes to the paper
plate.

3.
Now it is time to make his nose. I used a bit of pink construction
paper scrap, and I used the hole in my scissors as a pattern to trace
an oval. Or, be creative and try to find other things around the house
that can act as tracing templates for a funny shaped nose. Then, glue
the nose on below the eyes.

4.
I then used a marker and drew on the mouth. But you can use
construction paper to make a mouth. A big grin would look great with
some chunky teeth showing!
5. Next it is time to make his
beard. Take the red construction paper and start cutting thin long
strips from it, about 1/4 inch wide. When you are done, take all these
strips and cut them in half to make them shorter and so you have twice
as many as you started with.

6.
Take each strip and roll it tightly around a pencil. This will make it
curly. Then glue each curly strip around the edge of the plate to make
his beard.

7. The paper plate leprechaun is all finished.
It should hold up well just using some tape to hang to the door, or a
loop of string can be taped to the back for easy hanging.
