We got the cutest paper reindeer craft to share with you today. Use it as a Christmas decoration at home or in the classroom, in case you are a teacher.
My kids love Christmas crafting but it occurred to me that while we have created quite a few Christmas trees and Santa crafts, we are short of reindeer.
Now we are on a mission to add a few reindeer to our collection of easy crafts for kids. What would Santa do without his reindeer to pull his sleigh on the most important night of the year, right?
We’re starting with a simple paper reindeer craft that kids will enjoy creating at home with their mom or dad or at school.
Just imagine a whole classroom decorated with these adorable reindeer!
It would look amazing and will get everyone into the holiday spirit. Because who can resist the reindeer’s red nose or its silly face?
Reindeer’s antlers are special
What is so special about them, you ask?
Here are a few fun facts about the reindeer’s antlers that will fascinate you and your kid(s):
- In all deer species only males grow antlers so they can battle for females. But both male and female reindeer grow antlers.
- Reindeer have the largest and heaviest antlers among all deer species.
- Female reindeer use their antlers to defend food and the one with the largest antlers will dominate.
- Antlers fall off every year and grow bigger next year.
- Male reindeer lose their antlers during fall time.
- Female reindeer lose their antlers in spring because they need to find and defend food during their winter pregnancy.
If you want to give your reindeer a personal touch, try this handprint reindeer craft, where the antlers have been replaced with the kids’ handprints – how precious!
While these pictures show the reindeer with googly eyes, I have updated the reindeer template to also include paper eyes.
Paper reindeer craft
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Supplies:
- Reindeer template
- Two shades of brown cardstock paper
- Beige cardstock paper
- Red cardstock paper
- Googly eyes
- Scissors
- Glue
- Black marker
I love crafting with cardstock paper because it’s a sturdy material but you can replace it with construction paper.
How to make a paper reindeer craft
The reindeer template comes with two versions:
1. home template – print the template, cut out the patterns and trace them on appropriate colored paper
2. classroom template – print the pattern directly on colored paper and cut them out.
This way you can easily craft with just one or two kids as well as with a classroom full of students.
Step by step directions for home crafting
Print the home template and cut out the patterns.
Trace the reindeer face and ears on brown paper and cut them out. The oval and the ear details are to be traces on beige paper. Trace the nose on red paper and the antlers on dark brown paper and cut them out, too. Now you have all the patterns cut out and we can go ahead and glue them all together.
Start by gluing the oval at the bottom of the face.
Glue the ear details on top of the ears and glue the ears to the back of the face, one ear on each side.
Glue the antlers on top of the face, between the ears.
Add the red nose on top of the oval.
Add the googly eyes.
Use a black marker to draw a mouth.
Step by step directions for classroom crafting
Print the classroom template on corresponding paper. The reindeer face and ears are printed on brown paper, the oval and ear details on beige paper, the antlers on dark brown paper and the nose on red paper.
To make the paper reindeer craft, each student will need: 1 brown face, 1 beige oval, 1 red nose, 2 brown ears, 2 beige ear details, 2 dark brown antlers.
Start by gluing the oval at the bottom of the face.
Glue the ear details on top of the ears and glue the ears to the back of the face, one ear on each side.
Glue the antlers on top of the face, between the ears.
Add the red nose on top of the oval.
Add the googly eyes.
Use a black marker to draw the mouth.