10 Ocean Themed Crafts For World Ocean Day
Wednesday 8th June sees the return of World Ocean Day, the annual celebration of our Ocean, which sees people around the World unite to protect and restore our blue planet. Its main objective is to raise awareness, inspiring young people to ask World Leaders to take action.
We believe that the best way to educate little ones is through play, so we’re bringing you 10 brilliant craft ideas to have a go at with your children.
1) Rainbow Fish
Annabelle from Annabelle’s Busy World has a lovely craft idea for recycling old CD’s – turn them into shiny rainbow fish! Just take your CD, draw on some scales with a sharpie, and add the mouth, tail and fins using old wrapping paper that you’re never going to use. You could even attach a ribbon at the back and hang them somewhere where they’ll catch the light.2) Shark Peg Puppet
Baker Ross have a clever tutorial for making a shark peg puppet with a fish inside its mouth. All you need is a wooden peg, a piece of blue card, a thin black pen, a self-adhesive googly eye, a small piece of red card, and a cocktail stick. Simply cut out a shark shape, draw on some gills, stick on the googly eye, cut out a fish and attach to a 2cm piece of cocktail stick, then stick it all together onto the peg. For the full Shark Peg Puppet tutorial click here.3) Paper Weaving Seahorse
We love this tutorial from Artsy Craftsy Mom, which shows you how to make a paper weaving seahorse from just bubble wrap, white paper, coloured card and blue paint. Click here to see the full Paper Weaving Seahorse tutorial. Simply paint the sea on the white paper using the bubble wrap and blue paint, then download the template and cut out the pieces of card, weave together, trim, and stick on the mane, fins and eye.
4) Bottle Cap Fish Art
I Heart Crafty Things have a lovely tutorial which shows you how to make an Ocean scene using bottle caps. You’ll just need a selection of coloured paper and card, bottle caps, googly eyes, tissue paper, a sharpie, glitter glue, white paint and a straw, and PVA glue. The end result is really fun, and a great way to recycle your bottle caps and stop them from entering our Ocean. For the full Bottle Cap Fish Art tutorial click here.5) Paper Plate Jellyfish
This is a really fun, tactile craft activity for little ones. These paper plate jellyfish by Annabelle from Annabelle’s Busy World are easy to make and can double up as a decoration for parties. All you need is some paper plates, glue, washable children’s paint, and coloured crepe paper, felt or yarn for the tentacles. Stick a loop of yarn on the reverse side at the top, and hang their artwork proudly for everyone to see.
6) Cupcake Liner Seahorse
We love this tutorial for a cupcake liner seahorse from Hello Wonderful. You’ll need a set of liquid watercolours, watercolour paper, pipettes, a sharpie, a selection of colourful cupcake cases, and glue. Draw your seahorse shape onto watercolour paper, then paint bold stripes of colour using a combination of paintbrushes and pipettes, wait until dry and cut out. Then fold your cupcake cases and stick onto your seahorse, and draw on the eyes and nose using a sharpie. For step-by-step instructions on how to make the Cupcake Liner Seahorse click here.7) Paper Roll Crab
This is a really simple and fun Ocean craft from Easy Peasy and Fun. All you need is a toilet paper or kitchen paper roll, googly eyes, red paper, glue, and a black sharpie. Click here for the full instructions on how to make this Paper Roll Crab.8) Newspaper Shark
This craft idea from I Heart Crafty Things is perfect for hand-making cards, or pictures to gift to Grandparents. All you need is coloured card, newspaper, googly eyes and glue. If you’d like to follow the step-by-step instructions for the Newspaper Shark, click here.
9) Handprint Sealife Puppets
Baker Ross have a clever tutorial for making Sealife puppets out of your little ones handprints. All you need is coloured card, child-safe paint, wooden lolly sticks, glue, tissue paper, googly eyes, a felt tip pen and glitter glue. Simply create their handprint on coloured card, glue onto the lolly stick, then decorate with googly eyes and glitter, draw on the detail with the pen, and attach the tissue paper as jellyfish tentacles.
10) Seashell Mobile
Courtney from Babyccino Kids has a lovely craft idea for creating a mobile out of sea shells collected at the beach. When you’re collecting your shells make sure you look for ones which have holes in the middle (caused by animals such as sea snails, octopuses and beetles penetrating the shell to eat the soft flesh inside). All you need to do is thread string through these holes, using knots to hold the shells in place, then attach to a piece of driftwood or long stick.