Easy and Fun Paper Plate Ocean Craft

Happy World Ocean Week! Whether it’s actually World Ocean Week when you’re reading this post or not, I’ve got a really fun ocean-themed craft to share with you today. It’s easy, unique, and you probably have all of the supplies at home already needed to create this paper plate ocean craft! (And if not, I’ve got a few links for you to some of my crafting favorites. 😀)

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We created this adorable ocean-themed puppet craft using a paper plate, craft sticks, and some cardboard from my recycle bin. And of course, we decorated ours with our very favorite Kwikstix paint sticks (click here to check them out).

Materials needed:

Paper plate
Craft sticks (<— these Walmart ones are much cheaper than you’ll find on Amazon!)
Cardboard from recycle bin (you could also use cardstock)
Paint sticks (or washable paint, or markers)
Glue
A sharp knife and/or scissors

To create this craft:

I drew a line lightly with pencil, about halfway down the paper plate, all the way across. Ella (my 5 year old) used this as a guide and then used our paint sticks to color the ocean background – half blue, half yellow (or gold).
I used a sharp knife to cut a slit in the plate where I had previously drawn a line. The slit shouldn’t go all the way across the plate – it should be about 3 inches wide, in the center.

3. The first thing I cut from our recycled cardboard was “seaweed”. This was just four tall, thin squiggly lines. Ella painted these green and then glued them onto the paper plate, being careful not to cover our slit.

4. I also cut out four fish shapes. I searched for “simple fish drawing” on Pinterest and used that to freehand my fish. Don’t overthink it!

5. Ella decorated the fish to her liking, and then we glued them onto craft sticks. The hardest part was right here – waiting for the glue to dry before playing with our cute new puppets!

6. Once the glue was dry, I slid one of the craft sticks through the slit on the paper plate. We were now able to make our puppets “swim” (and talk, and anything else our imaginations could come up with)!