Handy Hermit Crabs

Today's Eric Carle book was A House For Hermit Crab. I had seen this amazing project at I Heart Crafty Things and couldn't wait for our Eric Carle theme so I could do something similar. My class did a much simpler version, only because I had a room full of kids and a limited amount of time. We started with a hand print with red or pink paint. As that dried, the kids painted small paper plates with watercolors. I had cut part of it off where the crab would go, and I drew in a swirl to make it look like a shell.

Then I had them draw an underwater scene on light blue paper using oil pastels.

I reminded them that their crabs would cover much of the paper so they should decorate the sides and top and bottom of the paper. I used small pieces of pipe cleaners for the eye stalks and just attached them to the hand prints with masking tape. Then I used glue dots to attach the wiggle eyes to the eye stalks. The plate was glued down with Elmer's glue along the ridge of the plate, and the hand was taped in place.

I love how they turned out! I displayed them on the wall in our room and all afternoon I couldn't stop staring at them. They are just so stinkin' cute!

I was also thinking it would be neat to some how have the hand print inside the shell and be able to pull it out. Maybe next time.

UPDATED 11/19/14:

We made these again this year and they are just too cute not to share. I traced the kids' hands this time instead of making a print. And we used Crayola watercolors to paint the plate (instead of generic paints that we used above) and they turned out so much brighter!

Fun Fact: Hermit crabs are not really hermits. They are social creatures and can usually be found in groups of 100 or more.