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Moving Shark Paper Plate Craft

This moving shark paper plate craft for kids is a fun summer activity. It’s also perfect to make at home during Shark Week or as part of an ocean or shark unit study.

It’s one of our easy craft ideas for kids and can be finished in less than 30 minutes. It’s an ideal project for preschool, kindergarten, and elementary age children. Once completed, they can use the shark puppets for imaginative play.

White and black text on light blue background at top says Swimming Sharks Paper Plate Craft. Below text is a photo of a completed craft using a paper plate as a backdrop and decorated to look like the ocean and two paper shark puppets on popsicle craft sticks move around through slit in the plate.

Like this shark craft? You may also enjoy our shark life cycle slider and ocean zone density jar activities.

Swimming Sharks Craft

Transform a disposable plate into a scene under the sea with two cute shark puppets you can make swim around.

I think the paper sharks are so adorable and the whole activity is fun for kids to do. We’re providing a printable template for ease of use, or you can freehand your own sharks and underwater plants.

Younger children may need some assistance, but older kids should be able to complete this project independently. An adult should prep the paper plate by cutting a slit near the bottom edge for the puppets.

Have the kids work on fine motor skills by tracing the templates onto colored paper and cutting the pieces out. Practicing scissor skills and tracing is beneficial for improving fine motor and writing skills.

Overhead view of moving shark paper plate craft. Two paper shark puppets (one gray and white, the other navy and white) on popsicle sticks through a slit in a paper plate. Blue paper glued to back of plate to look like water.

The swimming sharks is a great opportunity to inspire kids’ creativity and imagination. They can make up a little play for the sharks to act out or even make additional sea creature puppets.

You can also create a stationary ocean scene by gluing the sharks directly to the plate, rather than making puppets and cutting an opening in the plate for them.

Keep the theme going and make a shark headband craft too. It’s the perfect addition to a summer crafting session.

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Shark Paper Plate Craft Supplies:

Shop some of my favorite craft supplies on Amazon!

How to Make a Moving Paper Plate Shark Craft:

First you will need to print out our Shark Paper Plate Craft Template (available for free by filling out the form near the bottom of this post) or plan to draw and cut out your own pieces freehand.

Next, cut out all of the pieces from the PDF template. Use them to trace onto colored paper.

Example colors to use: light blue circle for center of paper plate sky, different shade of blue for water waves, white for the shark bellies, gray and navy blue for top of the sharks, and green for sea plants.

Then cut out the shark pieces and glue the bottom and top part of each shark together.

Top and bottom pieces for shark body cut out using gray and white paper.

Line the top part up with the bottom and overlap them a little. Set aside to dry.

Gray piece glued along the top of the white piece of the shark.

Use a marker or pen to draw the gills, mouth and teeth on the sharks.

Attach two googly eyes onto each shark. 

Gray and white paper shark glued together. Used black marker to draw lines for gills and mouth with teeth. Glued on two googly eyes.

Use a pair of scissors to cut a long slit on the bottom edge of the paper plate’s center. 

Close view of plate showing where an opening was cut into one area of the plate for the popsicle sticks to go through.

Cut out a light blue circle the size of the center of your paper plate and glue it to the plate.

Then use the template to cut out the waves from a different shade of blue, and glue it onto the plate.

Light blue paper circle glued to center of plate with darker shade of blue cut in semi-circle with wavy line across glued on top of light blue paper to create the ocean.

Glue the sea plants under the water. Add additional items to set the scene if you’d like such as seaweed, starfish, small fish, rocks, etc.

Now tape or glue the wooden craft popsicle sticks to the back of the sharks. You can attach another stick to the end of the first to make it longer, if needed.

Two paper sharks (one gray with white and the other dark navy with white) attached to craft popsicle sticks to make shark puppets.

Finish it off by sliding the popsicle sticks through the slit in the plate. Move the sticks around to make the sharks swim around in the ocean!

Overhead view of completed swimming sharks paper plate craft project. Gray shark is above wavy water line and navy shark is swimming below the surface.

More Paper Plate Crafts:

Get the Shark Template Printable

Fill out the form below and the shark paper plate printable template file will be emailed to you.

Moving Shark Paper Plate Craft

Moving Shark Paper Plate Craft

Yield: 1
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Active Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Cost: $5 or less

Make this cute and easy shark paper plate craft and have fun making the shark puppets swim under the sea.

Materials

  • Printable Shark Paper Plate Template PDF
  • Paper Plate (9 or 10 inch)
  • Cardstock or construction paper in a variety of colors
  • Googly Eyes
  • Wooden Craft Sticks

Tools

  • Glue (liquid school glue or glue sticks)
  • Fine Tipped Black Marker
  • Pencil
  • Scissors

Instructions

  1. Print out our Shark Paper Plate Craft Template or draw and cut out your own pieces freehand.
  2. Next, cut out all of the pieces from the PDF template. Use them to trace onto colored paper. Example colors to use: light blue circle for center of paper plate sky, different shade of blue for water waves, white for the shark bellies, gray and navy blue for top of the sharks, and green for sea plants.
  3. Then cut out the shark pieces and glue the bottom and top part of each shark together. Line the top part up with the bottom and overlap them a little. Set aside to dry.
  4. Use a marker or pen to draw the gills, mouth and teeth on the sharks.
  5. Attach two googly eyes onto each shark.
  6. Use a pair of scissors to cut a long slit on the bottom edge of the paper plate's center.
  7. Cut out a light blue circle the size of the center of your paper plate and glue it to the plate.
  8. Then use the template to cut out the waves from a different shade of blue, and glue it onto the plate.
  9. Glue the sea plants under the water. Add additional items to set the scene if you'd like such as seaweed, starfish, small fish, rocks, etc.
  10. Now tape or glue the wooden craft popsicle sticks to the back of the sharks. You can attach another stick to the end of the first to make it longer, if needed.
  11. Finish it off by sliding the popsicle sticks through the slit in the plate. Move the sticks around to make the sharks swim around in the ocean!

Did you make this project?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

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