After another awesome animal activity? Well here’s a super cute build a hippo craft!
This simple activity is great for developing your child’s cutting and sticking skills, and an awesome chance to practice some pencil control and fine motor skills as well!
And this lovely cut and paste craft is brilliant for young children to use because it’s so simple for them to put together!
There’s a color and a plain hippo template – so your little ones can choose the colors and decorate their little hippo as they wish.
If you’re a teacher, this simple craft could also make a lovely craft for the classroom!
Other cut and paste crafts you may want to check out:
Or you can browse all the other printable cut and paste crafts here.
What Skills Can Your Children Learn And Practice?
When making this sweet penguin, your children will have the chance to practice and develop some skills such as:
- Cutting Skills – if you feel they’re ready, you can let them have a go at cutting out the pieces all by themselves – they’ll need to be careful and have good scissor control if they want to cut out the pieces neatly
- Fine Motor Skills – when they’re sticking and picking up and moving the parts and placing them where they need to go
- Pencil Control – if you print off the black and white version they can practice their pencil control and develop hand strength through coloring.
This simple craft will also give them a chance to practice their concentration and perseverance skills as they may find it tricky to place the pieces exactly where they want them to go.
How To Prepare This Build a Hippo Craft
First you’re going to want to download the templates by clicking on the download button at the bottom of the page – I’ve made a color and a black and white version.
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Other materials you’ll need:
- Safety scissors
- Card stock or Craft paper
- Some good glue
- Some coloring pencils or pens or other artsy materials
Once you’ve downloaded the templates, you’ll need to print them off onto paper or card.
Then, you can cut them out. Or if you’d like your children to get some cutting practice, you can let them have a go.
Then you can stick all the pieces together to make the hippo.
It can be really nice to let you’re kids have a bit of free rein here and see if they can work it out – kind of like a puzzle.
If they’re struggling, the order I’d do it in is:
- Stick the head to the body
- Stick the nose to the head
- Stick the hind legs on the body
- Stick the tail on the body
(I expect you could have worked that out but I do like to be thorough…)
The finished one should look something like this:
What a dumpy little fellow!
If you want to, you could always laminate the pieces before putting them together and use them as a puzzle. That way, the different parts would be kept nice and they can use them again and again.
After that you’re all done!
Let your kids practice their cutting and sticking skills in a simple and fun way!
But Wait… There’s Also A Black And White Hippo Template!
I’ve also made a black and white version which would be an awesome way for your little ones to practice their coloring skills and personalize their owl in their own way!
So why not crack out the pens, crayons, paints or collage (or all of them if you’re feeling adventurous) and let your kids get creative!
I’d love to hear about what they create!
