Paper Plate Ocean Creatures

For our final activity in our beach/ocean themed Baby-School, I wanted Kingston to get some more painting in! He loves painting so much. I wanted him to do a couple paper plate crafts. I love paper plate crafts so much. Paper plates are such a versatile canvas for creating different animals and critters. I decided that we would make a purple octopus and a gray shark!

First I got K ready to paint him octopus. I put him in his high chair and taped a paper plate down to the tray. Then I drizzled some purple paint on top. Kingston laughed when I accidentally dripped some over his hands. He went to work covering the plate. 

I told him that he was painting with the color purple and that he was making an octopus. Then I described what an octopus was and tickled him with my many "tentacles". He got a kick out of this and couldn't stop laughing. 

Check out this awesome picture that I took mid-laugh!

After he covered his plate, I got him cleaned up and taped down a clean, new plate. Then I poured some black paint on the plate. From prior experience, I've found that the black fingerpaint we have dries more gray than black, so it would be perfect for a shark!

He was hamming it up big time the whole time he painted. I couldn't help but capture his sweet smiles and giggles!

I explained that the color he was painting with was black and told him what a shark was and that it went "CHOMP, CHOMP, CHOMP!" This is the reaction I got: 

Then he decided he wanted to paint my "chomping" hands, So I let him of course. We love messy play!

When both plates were dry (and Kingston was napping!), I added the finishing touches. For the octopus, I glued on two jumbo googly eyes, cut out a little purple mouth, and cut out and glued on 8 accordion folded, construction paper tentacles. For the shark, I cut a wedge out of the paper plate. Then I glued the wedge to the opposite side of the plate to form a back fin. Then I cut out some white chompers for the shark and glued on a jumbo googly eye. 

Here is the outcome:

I am obsessed with the way they turned out. I love them so much, that I had to find a spot to hang them up. They are now hanging from the mantle place which I have officially designated as Kingston's "masterpiece display" spot for now! This is such a fun and simple, must-do craft. It was a great final activity for us to do in this theme. 

We had so much fun exploring the ocean and beach. I am sad to see all of our enrichments (starfish, sand dollars, sea shells, sand toys etc.) get put away for now, but I need to make room for our new theme: The Zoo! We will be kicking off our next Baby-School theme this week starting with Kingston's very first trip to the zoo. I can hardly wait!