Unicorns are very much in style right now. Unicorn designs are on kids’ clothes, toys, backpacks, and more.
It’s more than likely that your little monster is in the middle of their own unicorn preoccupation.
Making this papercraft unicorn is a wonderful way for a parent and child to bond over imaginative stories, coupled with real facts.
Properly done, it can be a great learning experience.
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Colors and Designs
Letting your child choose the colors for your papercraft unicorn is a great way to keep them interested and involved in its creation.
This is important since it isn’t safe for your child to be handling the scissors and glue!
Something simple, like choosing the colors for a papercraft unicorn, is an important step towards your child developing their own preferences and individuality.
Another idea is to base your unicorn’s design on real-life horse patterns.
Especially if your child loves unicorns, you might find yourself making quite a few of these. Spend some time showing your child different horse patterns.
A papercraft unicorn can become a regular paper horse simply by leaving out the horn!
Unicorn obsessions are usually followed by an interest in horses later in life.
This is something you can promote right now.
Creativity and Mythology
Unicorns are creatures rooted in mythology.
While you’ll probably want to keep these stories basic and light-hearted for your pre-schooler, why not research some unicorn mythology stories to teach your child while you put your paper creation together?
If your child shows an interest in something like unicorns at a young age, this can lead to an interest in deeper mythology (Greek, Roman, and so on) as well as an interest in history in later life.
Interests and passions are often formed at an early age.
Creating a paper unicorn is a great opportunity to promote your child’s creativity.
Start by having them come up with a name for your unicorn, as well as picking its colors and patterns.
Build more paper unicorns of different colors and sizes to put together a family.
If your child is interested in old stories surrounding unicorns, why not have them make up their own?
Ask them where the unicorn came from, and where they grew up.
Where are they going, and what is special about them? Think of a few key questions to help your child form a story.
At this age, chances are your child’s story will be a little incoherent and probably very strange!
That’s OK, because our focus here is on promoting creativity and imagination.
You’re encouraging your child to think, to make up something new.
In an age of video games and YouTube videos, imagination in children often doesn’t develop as strongly as it once did.
However, a good imagination will help your child in countless ways as they grow up.
While playing games with a new paper unicorn is fun, it’s always good to ask your child who they think would like a toy like this as a gift.
If your child is too attached to the unicorn, that’s OK – you can just make another one!
How to Make a Papercraft Unicorn
Instructions
Step 1:
Select pastel shades craft paper for the unicorn papercraft. Trace the hair and body patterns on 2 different colors of paper to make the patterns pop.
The template includes 3 layers of tail hair, 3 layers of mane hair (back), 2 layers of front hair, body base, and horn, eye and inner ear patterns.
Step 2:
Stick the medium sized tail layer on the big tail cutout. Stick the medium sized mane (back) layer on the big mane cutout. Stick the small hair (front) cutout along the top side of the main hair cutout.
Step 3:
Stick the 3rd (small) layers on the base cutouts for both tail and back hair.
Step 4:
Stick the ear cutout in the middle of the ear part attached to the body base. Stick the tail pattern on the backside of the body base pattern.
Step 5:
Stick the mane hair patterns (front and back) with the body base pattern.
Step 6:
Use a sharpie to draw the eyes, nose and mouth of the papercraft unicorn. You can also use the eye patterns from the provided template if you want to.