Today we have a fiercely cute shark paper plate craft for kids of all ages with just a few supplies. This fun shark craft is perfect for Shark Week, a school ocean unit or great fun at home or in the classroom.
Shark Paper Plate Craft for Kids
Shark Week in our house marks a fun week of shark themed crafts and activities. This fun shark craft uses a paper plate to create a shark mouth full of teeth that open and close almost like a shark puppet.
Related: Easy Paper Plate Shark Craft and Living Sand Dollar – Beautiful on Top, Horrifying On the Bottom
Younger kids may need a little extra help with making their own sharks because this does require fine motor skills and scissor skills. Older kids will be happy crafting the movable jaws!
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Chomping Paper Plate Shark Craft for Kids
Related: Let’s make paper plate animals!
Supplies Needed to Make a Shark Paper Plate
Directions to Make a Shark Paper Plate Craft
Watch Our Short Video How to Make a Shark from a Paper Plate
Step 1
Start by cutting off the outer rim of the paper plate.
Now fold paper plate in half so that you have an idea of how the mouth will look and to make a crease in the plate. The top will become the upper jaw and the bottom of the plate fold will be the lower jaw of the shark.
Step 2
Unfold the plate and start cutting small triangle shaped teeth around the entire edge of the paper plate.
Step 3
When you have cut out all the teeth, fold plate in half again and start painting the outside of the plate with blue acrylic paint.
Don’t paint the teeth. Leave them white.
Step 4
Once the blue paint has dried, paint the inside of the mouth red. Again don’t paint the teeth.
Tip: If you started with a paper plate that is not white, use some white paint on the teeth.
Step 5
Set aside to dry.
Now take your blue foam paper and cut out a fin using scissors. Make sure the fin isn’t too big or too small compared to the plate.
Step 6
When all the paint is dry, use some glue (we prefer a hot glue) to attach the two google eyes and a top fin to the topside of the folded paper plate.
It doesn’t matter which side you choose to make the top. Do whatever looks best to you.
Finished Paper Plate Shark with Movable Jaws Craft
Now the plate resembles a shark with some nice big chompers .
The plate should stay some what open on its own and you can hold it from the back end and squeeze on the top and bottom together to make the mouth open and close.
Our Experience Making this Paper Plate Shark Puppet
We loved this fun craft. Because we were using it as preschool crafts, my kids needed just a little help with forming the shape of the shark teeth.
Related: More fun paper plate crafts for kids
Our youngest son really wanted a shark craft he could pretend to “bite” his older siblings with and that’s when we decided a shark paper plate craft was fun and a harmless way for him to do that. This paper plate craft has a moving shark mouth with shark teeth so if you’ve got a little one that likes to bite and chomp, this is the perfect shark craft to do on a hot, sunny day! It is literally a shark teeth puppet of sorts.
Get ready to chomp and bite on some fish…or your brother {giggle}.
Active Time
20 minutes
Total Time
20 minutes
Difficulty
Medium
Estimated Cost
$5
Materials
- Paper Plate
- Acrylic Paint (blue and red)
- Large Googly Eyes
- Blue Foam Paper
Tools
- Paint brush
- Glue
- Scissors
Instructions
- Cut off the outer rim of the white paper plate. Fold it in half and crease the plate.
- Unfold the plate and cut triangles for teeth around the outer edge of the paper plate.
- Paint the outside of the shark blue and the inside of the mouth red leaving the teeth white.
- Make a shark fin from blue foam craft sheets and attach to the middle of the upper portion of the blue shark top.
- Add large googly eyes.
MORE SHARK FUN FROM KIDS ACTIVITIES BLOG
Did your kids love making this chomping shark paper plate craft?
