Sea animals are always fun to learn and imagine. Involving and inspiring children to indulge in some great ocean crafts can be amusing. Looking at the different imaginative and fancy ideas, can be fun for parents and teachers. Summer is the best time of the year to explore the ocean crafts for kids. Be it a seahorse they’ve seen on television or a starfish they might have touched in the beach; it is always fun to keep up with kid’s creative juicy ideas flowing all through the summer.
We have some amazing, exciting ocean themed craft ideas for your kids to jump into the fantasy world and create their art.
Easy And Creative Ocean Crafts For Kids:
Guide your kids through the steps below and take proper precautions for safety with scissors, glue, oven or any sharp object.
1. Paper plate art :
a) Fishy Fish:
i.Things you will need
- Cardboard
- Glue
- Scissors
- White chart paper
- A medium straw
- Wiggly eye (Can be made on paper too if unavailable)
- Paint
ii.How to go about it:
- Draw an oval shape on the cardboard at a corner and mark the half. This acts as the head of the fish
- Cut only the one half of the oval and make a small ‘V’ shape to act as the fish’s mouth near the smaller end of the oval.
- Paint this oval with the acrylic paint and we prefer yellow color.
- On the back side of this cardboard, stick the straw from the center of the head and leave the other end as is for now.
- From the cardboard, cut the tail portion only which looks like a mustache but just a wider one as shown in the picture and color it blue.
- Once it dries out, paste it on the open end of the straw. Now the straw should look like the center rib of the fish.
- With chart paper now, you have to cut the strips with the size matching the width of the head until the tail gradually decreasing the length.
- Color them in a combination shades of blue green and yellow in sequence. Once they dry up, stick it on the straw with a bit of gap at the strip’s centers such that it looks like a fish bone.
- You can as well color the straw to make it look prettier with yellow or combination of 3 colors again.
- Now the detailing part, where you stick the eyes and highlight it with an outline.
- With a rope (if needed), stick it to the back and hang it on a wall or kid’s room door.
Isn’t that a great sea craft that you would love to put on display after the kid is done making it? You can make many such art like star fish etc.
b) Paper snail:
i.Things you will need:
- Cork/ paint brush
- Scissors
- Paper plates – 1 per child
- Acrylic Paint
- Glue
- Wiggly plastic eye (can be made on paper too if unavailable)
ii.How to go about it:
- Draw spirals on the front part of one of the paper plate.
- Dip the cork into paint (preferably, 3 combination of colors like green, blue and yellow). Stamp it on the paper with the combination of the three colors for a perfect effect. You can as well use a paint brush for the coloring as shown in the picture.
- Once it is dry, cut the paper place along the spiral such that the head portion is made into a circle and is thicker than the other body.
- Now, the detailing bit where you make the snail’s eyes and antennas with paper or wiggly plastic eye.
This will serve as an excellent art idea for ocean craft for toddlers.
c) Paper Aquarium:
i.Things you will need:
- 2 paper plates
- Chart paper
- Paint
- Scissors
- Glue
- Granular pebbles
- Shells (pick it up from beach while with kids)
- Gift wrapping papers
- Wiggly eyes
- Marker pen
ii.How to go about it:
- Paint the paper with combination of dark and light blue color with white shade to look like sea water.
- Take another plastic plate and cut the center of the place such that there is only a round rim of the outer plate is left for about 1 inch width. Paint it with the same combination as above with shades of blue and white combination both sides. Keep it aside to dry.
- On the first plate, stick some small granular pebbles and shells in a cluster on the bottom of the place.
- On the chart paper draw some wavy sea plants and paint it in green. Cut it out and stick it near the shell and pebble cluster.
- From the gift wrapping paper, cut out oval shape and the tail and fins of the fish. Use different combination of the wrapping sheet t make it look attractive.
- Stick them to make fish on the center of the plate and another one right besides on the top to show them swimming through.
- Give them detailing like eyes by sticking the wiggly eyes and mouth with black marker pen.
- Once done and dry, stick the circular plate outline on the top with the front facing down to form an outer covering to the art, giving it a 3D effect.
It is one of the best under the sea crafts that you can encourage your kid to make.
d) Angry Shark
i.Things you will need:
- Paper plate
- Scissors
- Paint
- Brush
- Wiggly eyes
- Marker pen
- Chart paper
ii.How to go about it:
- Take the plastic plate and with a pencil on one part of it, draw a ‘V’ Shape wide enough to have 45-50 degrees gap.
- On the one edge of V both sides, draw teeth of the shark with ‘v’ shape again but smaller about 1/2 inch size. The poky side of the ‘v’ towards the cavity.
- Color the half of the plate with blue color (dark shade of blue) and add detailing as shown in the picture (eyes and eye brow with gills)
- Cur the fin and tail shape from the cardboard and paint them blue. Stick it from the back side of the paper to complete the craft.
Doesn’t that make a perfect ocean crafts for preschool kids? I am sure they would enjoy this especially to see it after completed. You can use the same idea to make many such fishes or mermaids.
e) Under the ocean jelly
i.Things you will need:
- 5 Plastic plate or bowl
- Glue
- Assorted ribbons
- Wiggly eyes
- Water color
- Rope
ii.How to go about it
- Paint both sides of the plastic bowl with different bright colors like blue green yellow, red and pink etc.
- On the outer side of the bowl, stick the wiggly eyes
- On the inner side of the bowl, stick the assorted ribbons such that it looks like the jelly fish tentacles and keep it long enough to hang.
- Using a rope, from the center of the plastic bowl, hang the jelly fish. Hang them together to show a cluster of jelly fishes in the ocean.
This makes a brilliant preschoolers ocean craft.
2. Baking Soda Ocean Craft For Kids :
i. Things you will need:
- Baking soda (R)
- Cornstarch
- Water
- Bowl
ii. How to go about it:
- Mix the mixture of cornstarch, baking soda and water in a bowl.
- Microwave the bowl and keep heating and mixing for about 2 minutes until it is slightly thickened.
- Every 20 seconds of interval stir and heat until the mixture looks like mashed potatoes, take it out and cover it with a wet paper towel and allow it to cool down.
- Once the dough is cool to touch, knead until the consistency is smooth.
- Create some cool sea formations like starfish, coral rocks, and coins etc. as shown in the picture.
- Once done, leave them to dry for 2 days or bake them in the oven for 45 minutes to harden and change the color to light brown.
- Color them as you like and use them to decorate the kid’s study table.
This makes a brilliant sea creature craft for the kids. Use this idea to create an ocean bowl with water an plastic sea plants to give it a 3 D look.
3. Make your personal aquarium:
i. Things you will need:
- Mason Jar with Lid
- Aquarium gravel or small pebbles and shells
- Plastic plant
- Plastic fish toy
- Fishing line
- Sewing needle
- Glue
- Scissor
- Food color
ii. How to go about it:
- Glue the plastic plant inside the jar and fix it.
- Add a handful of the aquarium gravels to the bottom of the jar. Cover about 1 inch or above at the bottom with the gravels.
- This step requires adult supervision or intervention to sew the plastic toy with a needle and the fish thread. You can heat the needle from one end and puncture it to insert the thread. Stick the other end of the thread to the lid of the mason jar such that it exactly hangs at the center of the jar as though the fish is swimming.
- Do it with multiple fishes hanging at different lengths from the lid.
- Fill the mason jar with water.
- Add the food color to the water (preferably blue and a little green if need be) to show up as sea water.
Thus the personal aquarium is ready. Kids love to make these and put it for display int heir room.
4. Sock Octopus
i. Things you will need:
- Socks
- Cotton
- Thread
- Scissors
- Wiggly eyes
- Fabric Glue
ii. How to go about it:
- Fill the socks with cotton to form a round head of the octopus.
- Tie it with a thread.
- Cut the other bit after the thread into 8 long arms.
- Stick the wiggly eyes onto the head to make the face.
- Attach some beads to act as suckers in the black shade at the back of each hand of the octopus.
Thus, the lovely under the sea craft is ready for the kid to flaunt it among their friends.
5. Ocean Candle
i. Things you will need:
- Shells (pick as many beautiful shells and stones from the beach you go next time with kids)
- Floating candle.
- Glass tumblers
- Sand
ii. How to go about it:
- Take the glass tumbler and add some sand at the bottom and place a bunch of beautiful different shapes of shells.
- Add water to the tumbler
- Place a floating candle and enjoy the art.
Let the kid add this to the home decor and enjoy the beauty of under the sea crafts.
Read more for some quick paper crafts ideas for kids.
