Mermaids

This is the first mermaid craft I've ever done with my kids and I love how it turned out!

I had three inspirations that I combined to make ours. I liked the handprints for hair that I saw on Pinterest (without an active link), the body is from Follow the Stray, and the long twirling tail is from Let's Play Music. I did have to change it a bit, though, to fit the bigger body. I made the waist bigger and had it dip down in the middle. I traced my new template onto colored paper. It's just regular paper because I didn't know if thicker paper would hang down after cutting it. For the fish scales of the tail, I had the kids paint bubble wrap with glue.

Then I flipped it over onto the back of the colored paper. (This way when I cut it out, I'd be able to see my lines because it wouldn't be covered in glitter. I was thinking ahead!) They gently pushed down on the bubble wrap to transfer the glue to the paper.

Then I carefully peeled the bubble wrap off and placed the paper into a box. (Again, thinking ahead!) The kids picked one color of glitter and dumped a whole bunch into the box.

Then I took the paper out and very easily dumped the extra glitter back into the container. Of course, we still managed to get glitter all over, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been had we not used the boxes.

After a few kids made these, I realized we didn't need that much glitter. We could just shake the box a bit to make sure the glitter moved around and covered all the dots of glue.

You can reuse the same bubble wrap for each child. Just have them add a fresh layer of glue!

When they were dry, I cut them out. Glitter went EVERYWHERE! And it was a little tough to cut through the glittered glue. My hand was getting sore. But it was worth it.

Now for the body. I used the template I shared above, but cut off the hair and tail. I traced it onto cream-colored card stock. The kids decorated them with markers. I showed them how to easily make a bikini top.

They picked out seashells from this sticker book that I got for one dollar at Michaels.

They added them to the bikini top. They could also make necklaces and other jewelry if they wanted to. And they added a little hair on top of the head so the mermaids wouldn't be so bald in front!

As for the hair, each child picked out a hair color: yellow (blonde) or red/orange. I also had brown and black available, but no one chose those. I painted the child's hand (minus the thumb) and made several prints by just moving the hand slightly each time. (I found that just one handprint didn't really look like hair.)

I cut it out and glued it to the back of the head so it looked like it was floating in water.

Then I glued on the tail.

The back looked a little undone,

and since I was planning on hanging these, I decided to add a little piece of paper to the back to give it a more finished look. I just glued on paper of the same color, with a little "scoop" at the top, and trimmed it to fit the tail.

Here are our finished mermaids (and one merman!):

For the merman, I just used one handprint and glued it on straight up. It was the child's idea to add the nipples. After all, he said, "Boys have nipples, too."

That's mine (with kid handprints for hair) because I couldn't resist getting in on the fun, too! Besides, I had to make sure the glue-on-bubble-wrap thing worked before the kids went through all that trouble.

I hung them from the ceiling with our cupcake liner jellyfish. They look so cool twirling around!

The kids oohed and ahhed when I showed them their finished mermaids. I think the glitter-dot tail really sets them apart from any other mermaid craft I've seen out there.

Rock Crabs

We are reviewing our colors this week, but to make it more exciting I decided to teach the kids about colorful animals along the way. Today's colors were red and orange, so we learned about Sally Lightfoot Crabs (also called Red Rock Crabs). And what better way to make a Red Rock Crab than with a rock!

Cute, ain't he? I started by painting the kids' hands red and orange. I decided not to do their thumbs. I overlapped the palm prints on the paper.

Then the kids painted rocks.

When everything was dry, I used masking tape to attach red pipe cleaners to the bottom of the rock. I also used scotch tape to attach the pipe cleaners to pincers I had cut from red construction paper.

I cut out the hand prints and helped the kids shape the legs, just by folding the fingerprints up, then down again. We used regular glue dots to attach the rock to the hand prints and mini glue dots to add the wiggle eyes.

Even though there are no other facial features, I still feel like they each have a personality!

I love how they turned out!

Fun Fact: When Sally Lightfoot Crabs come out of hiding to feed, they can move at remarkable speeds (hence the name Lightfoot).

Little Tide Pools

To go along with our beach theme, we learned about tide pools. I read the book One Small Place by the Sea, by Barbara Brenner.

It not only explains what a tide pool is and what lives there, but it describes what happens in a tide pool. I found it very interesting. I had a vision of a tide pool craft in my head so I set out to get all my materials. I needed a plate that had a nice solid rim. I found these at Walgreens:

They were the only ones there that had a rim, so I bought them. But the bonus was that they were tan, like sand. Then I googled coloring pages of some of the things that live in a tide pool. I saved the images on my computer and printed them out in a small size.

We had a hermit crab, sea anemone, snail, mussels, starfish and shells. We ended up not using the larger starfish because it took up too much room on the plate. In the morning, the kids colored the pictures with crayons. They could color as many as they wanted. It was their own little tide pool and they could have whatever they wanted living in it. Then I cut the pieces out (mostly cutting around the object and not following the lines exactly because that would have taken too long) and put them on a plate with the child's name. Later in the day, the kids glued the pieces to the inside of their plate.

Then I used blue cellophane paper to cover the plate. (I bought a roll of it from Michaels several years ago, put it in my closet and never used it. I was so happy to finally have a use for it!) I cut a square slightly bigger than the plate and used a glue stick on the rim of the plate. I then flipped it over onto the cellophane and pressed on the rim.

Then I trimmed it. I wasn't sure if the glue stick would hold, but it worked perfectly.

The kids loved their tide pools and enjoyed showing their parents what was living inside!

Tropical Sunsets

We made some beautiful sunsets to go with our beach theme. They are similar to our desert sunsets from a couple years ago, but we used more colors this time. First the kids used droppers to add colored water to a coffee filter.

We put scrap paper under the filter to absorb some of the water. After a few minutes, I took the filter off the paper and put them on a plastic table cloth. They dried very quickly this way. Then I used a glue stick to attach them to white construction paper. This made the colors stand out more. I also cut the bottom inch or so off.

I cut them out and made a "sandy" bottom -- basically just cut black paper to look like land that went across the bottom. I also cut out two sizes of palm trees and some "v" birds. The kids glued them onto their sunsets.

My template for my palm tree was some clip art from a greeting card software program I have. I cut them out by hand with a scissors and it was quite a pain, but oh so worth it! I love how they turned out!

I wrote "Just another day in paradise..." on mine (by tracing words I had printed out -- my handwriting isn't that nice!).

They look so beautiful on our wall.

Hand-Printed Palm Trees

So I went to work today intending to paint the kids' feet green so they could make palm trees for our last beach craft. The feet would be the leaves. Well, I quickly realized that their feet are too big to fit on regular construction paper. (I wanted to use about 5 footprints all around in a circle, plus put a tree trunk underneath.) So I did a little brainstorming and decided to try the side of my fist (which is how we made our eagles). I loved it!

I called the kids over one at a time to paint their fist, however putting paint on a plate and letting them dip their fist into the paint would work as well.

I did two or three stamps with one hand,

and then two or three stamps with the other hand so the leaves would be facing the right direction.

When it's done in a little circle, you have a lovely top to your palm tree!

The easiest thing to do next would be to have the kids paint the trunk, but it was time for us to eat snack. By the time we got around to finishing the project, the paint was dry. So I decided to have them do all the coloring first (make a beach and a sky) before doing any more painting. This way they wouldn't have to worry about getting wet paint on their hands.

Then they took a brush dipped in brown paint to make the tree trunk.

And finally they used their thumbprints to make coconuts.

I really like how they turned out. I think I like them better than footprints!

 

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