This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.
This week we are hosting Ocean Week on our blog and Facebook page! We'd been sharing a few Ocean themed activities on Facebook along with one Toddler Approved Ocean craft on our blog each day.
One of our favorite books is Octopus Opposites by Stella Blackstone. It is a darling book that talks about opposites while also displaying beautiful color photos of lots of different animals... including several that live in the ocean. This book is great for working on new vocabulary with your child! All three of mine love it!
Our favorite character is the octopus, so my son and I made our own simple octopus craft using a paper plate.
Materials Needed:
streamers paper plate (cut 4 strips in half to make 8 thin strips)markers, paints, or dot-markerswhite glue2 white circle pieces of paper for eyes (or two giant googly eyes)
Directions:
This craft was super easy to make. First we just painted the paper plate. We used the back side of the plate because it didn't have any film on it and the paint stuck to it better.
Next we let the paint dry and then we glue on some large eyes. I drew a large black circle in the center of the two white pieces of paper. Then I put two glue dots onto the paper plate and then my son had fun sticking these to the glue.
Once the glue was dry, we turned the plate over and added glue to the bottom of the plate. Then we stuck the 8 thin pieces of streamers onto the plate. This was definitely a messy gluey sticky part! I would point to the glue dot on the plate and then he would take the end and stick it to that spot... then we would repeat until all 8 pieces were stuck in place.
After the glue on the streamers dried, my son loved making his octopus "swim" around the house.
Modifications:
My son is currently 20 months, so if you want to try this with younger kids you may want to do some of the gluing yourself and just have them paint the paper plate. You could also have them finger paint the paper if you don't want to use markers or dot markers.
If you want to keep this creation alive, definitely display it up high since these streamer legs are super fun to rip off! Or just let your child "love" their octopus until it is destroyed. 🙂
This activity is also super easy to adapt for older kids. You could make it more detail focused by giving them other materials and letting them add suckers to the Octopus's legs or more texture to the Octopus's body.
Do you have any other favorite ocean themed crafts or activities or books you could share with us? Head on over to our Ocean Week landing page to see the other activities we've shared this week.
Also, don't forget to head over and enter to win a PaddlePak backpack for your little explorer!! There are nine different paddlepaks to choose from and all of them go along perfectly with our ocean week theme!!
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.
Leave a Comment