Five Senses Touch + Process Art • 3-5 years
Textured Bird Painting
Explore how foil, feathers, bottle caps, and sponges feel and the different painted marks they make.
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Ocean Theme + Paper Plate Craft
Paper Plate Shark Craft
This paper plate shark craft is a cheerful ocean activity for preschoolers. Children paint a paper plate with blue ocean colors, add fins and a tail, and finish their shark with wiggly eyes and a friendly smile.
Best for: Ocean theme, shark week, summer centers, painting practice, scissor skills, gluing, and sea animal vocabulary.
Learning Goals
- Fine motor skills
- Creativity and color exploration
- Hand-eye coordination
- Scissor and gluing practice
- Ocean animal vocabulary
- Following multi-step directions
Materials
- Paper plates
- Blue paint and paintbrushes
- Blue construction paper
- Wiggly eyes
- Black marker
- Glue
- Scissors
How to Do the Activity
- Cut a paper plate in half to make the shark body.
- Invite children to paint the plate with blue paint. Let the paint dry.
- Cut fins and a tail from blue construction paper.
- Glue the fins and tail onto the back of the plate.
- Add wiggly eyes near the top of the shark.
- Use a black marker to draw a friendly shark smile.
- Display the sharks together for an ocean-themed classroom wall.
Questions to Ask Children
- What color did you choose for your shark?
- Where should the fin go?
- How many fins does your shark have?
- How do sharks move through the water?
- What other animals live in the ocean?
Teacher Tip: Pre-cut the paper plates and fin shapes for younger children. Older preschoolers can help cut simple triangles and tail pieces before gluing them onto the shark body.
