Easy Ocean Animal Crafts for Kids: Paper Plate, Popsicle Stick and Handprint Sea Creatures
Planning an ocean theme? Here are easy ocean animal crafts for kids, sorted by what you have on hand: paper plates, popsicle sticks, a traced hand, paper cups and more. You will also find letter crafts, sensory play and printables to fill out the week. Every one links to the full step-by-step post, and many have a printable template if you want to skip the tracing.
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Paper Plate Ocean Animal Crafts
1Paper Plate Shark Craft
A folded plate painted in blue and white, with fins cut from a template and googly eyes.
2Paper Plate Turtle Craft
A yellow painted plate becomes the shell, decorated with dark green octagons. The head and feet are light green paper.
3Paper Plate Octopus Craft
Half a plate painted violet, with curvy construction paper tentacles and paper eyes.
4Paper Plate Crab Craft
A red painted plate cut in half, with the crab shape traced from a printable template.
5Paper Plate Fish Craft
Cut plastic spoons are glued on and painted to make raised scales on this striped fish.
6Paper Plate Seahorse Craft
Traced from a template, then painted in a mix of orange and yellow, with googly eyes.
7Paper Plate Pufferfish Craft
Orange and yellow paint swirled into a yin-yang design, with a zigzag edge cut all around for spikes.
8Paper Plate Stingray Craft
A gray plate cut into a stingray shape from a template, with the face drawn on in marker.
9Whale Paper Plate Craft
A folded plate painted bright blue with a white striped belly, a wiggle eye and pink cheeks.
10Orca Paper Plate Craft
A folded, cut plate painted black, with white cardstock patches and a wiggle eye.
11Narwhal Paper Plate Craft
Two plates painted aqua and purple, with a paper horn, googly eyes and marker details.
12Seal Paper Plate Craft
A gray painted plate traced into a seal body, with a wiggle eye and black marker whiskers.
13Walrus Paper Plate Craft
Brown paint, black chenille stem whiskers and cardstock tusks.
14Paper Plate Mermaid Tail Craft
Layered scales painted in four shades of blue, finished with iridescent glitter glue and self-adhesive pearls.
15Paper Plate Porthole Craft
A golden yellow plate frame with six buttons for bolts, and an ocean scene kids color in behind the glass.
16Anchor Paper Plate Craft
A painted paper plate anchor wrapped with twine. It works for a pirate week, too.
18Paper Plate Clam Craft
A clam shell made from a paper plate, a quick one for beach week.
19Beach Ball Paper Plate Craft
Divide the plate into six sections like a pizza and paint each one a different color.
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20Shark Craft Stick Project
Three jumbo sticks painted blue, with a paper fin and a row of sharp white teeth.
21Turtle Craft Stick Project
Six jumbo sticks painted green, with a felt shell pattern and green buttons.
22Triangle Turtle Popsicle Stick Craft
Three green jumbo sticks glued into a triangle make the shell, with a paper head and legs.
23Octopus Craft Stick Project
Four sticks glued into an eight-legged star and painted purple, with a felt head.
24Crab Craft Stick Project
Six sticks painted red, with felt claws, pipe cleaner legs and googly eyes up on stick eye stalks.
25Crab Popsicle Stick Craft
Red painted sticks with red cardstock claws and googly eyes.
26Lobster Craft Stick Project
Red painted sticks with felt claws and legs, red pipe cleaners and googly eyes.
27Fish Craft Stick Project
Three orange sticks glued into a triangle body, with paper fins and a tail.
28Whale Craft Stick Project
Blue jumbo sticks, with a half stick to give the whale its step-like forehead.
29Narwhal Craft Stick Project
Sticks painted gray and turquoise, with dots stamped on using a pencil eraser, plus flippers and a tusk.
30Walrus Craft Stick Project
Four jumbo sticks painted brown, with paper tusks, a nose and googly eyes.
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Handprint Ocean Animal Crafts
31Octopus Handprint Craft
The fingers of a purple paper handprint peek out under a round head as tentacles.
32Crab Handprint Craft
Two red handprints overlap at the palms, so the fingers become claws and legs.
33Shark Handprint Craft
A light blue handprint becomes the shark’s face, glued onto a dark blue body.
34Fish Handprint Craft
A paper handprint makes the body and tail, with a yellow face and lips.
35Jellyfish Handprint Craft
A pink handprint makes the tentacles under a scalloped purple dome.
36Turtle Handprint Craft
A dark green handprint makes the legs under a light green paper shell.
37Manta Ray Handprint Craft
Two blue handprints make the wings, with a wiggly paper tail.
38Seahorse Handprint Craft
A yellow paper seahorse with a red handprint and a spiky crest.
39Lobster Handprint Craft
A red handprint sits on top of a segmented paper body with two claws.
40Walrus Handprint Craft
A brown handprint becomes the head and flippers, with white tusks and a black nose.
Paper Cup and More Ocean Crafts
41Paper Cup Octopus Craft
Curves cut around the bottom of a paper cup become the legs, all painted a soft purple.
42Paper Cup Whale Craft
A blue painted cup with a cardboard tail and fin, and fuzzy wire for the spout.
43Foam and Yarn Jellyfish Craft
A foam sheet body with yarn tentacles, stuck on with double-sided tape.
Ocean Animal Letter Crafts
46w is for Whale Craft
Two blue v shapes join to make a lowercase w whale with a tail.
47J is for Jellyfish Craft
A pink jellyfish sits on top of the letter J, with tentacles drawn in red marker.
49N is for Nemo Craft
An orange letter N becomes a clown fish with white stripes.
50N is for Narwhal Craft
The letter N becomes a narwhal, with a horn and a tail fin.
Ocean Sensory Play, Play Dough and Slime
52Chia Seed Ocean Sensory Bin
Chia seeds soaked overnight in blue water make a squishy, taste-safe ocean for plastic sea creatures.
53Easy Ocean Playdough Recipe
A small batch of blue play dough with silver glitter, made from flour, salt, water and oil.
54Ocean Playdough Tray Idea
An ocean play dough tray for sea animal pretend play.
57DIY Sand Playdough Recipe
Craft sand stirred into a simple flour and salt dough gives it a gritty, beachy feel.
Valentine's Day Sea Animal Crafts
58Valentine’s Day Heart Fish Craft
Two red hearts make the body and tail, with pink fins.
59Valentine’s Day Turtle Craft
A purple heart shell with pink teardrop head and legs.
Ocean Printables and Learning Activities
60Ocean Animals Cut and Paste
Kids color, cut and glue together their own ocean animals.
62Jellyfish Counting Clip Cards
Count the jellyfish on each card and clip the matching number.
66Shark Feelings Posters
Shark posters and flashcards for talking about feelings.
67Ocean Movement Cards
Twelve ocean animal movement cards to get kids up and moving.
68Beach Memory Matching Game
A beach memory game with the word printed under each picture.
69Beach Lacing Cards
Lacing cards shaped like a sandcastle, a beach ball and a shell.
71Beach Ball Alphabet Puzzles
Beach ball puzzles for matching uppercase and lowercase letters.
72Mermaid Alphabet Coloring Sheets
Mermaid alphabet coloring sheets for letter practice.
