It’s almost here guys! Shark Week 2021 begins July 11 and we are pumped!!! Are you ready for an exciting week filled with new reasearch on the amazing world of sharks? For the 33rd year, Discovery Channel will be airing programs hosted by many celebrities to help us better understand the behavior of sharks and respect the “fin-tastic” world they live in!
It was a bit of a struggle for me to find a schedule of all the programs to be aired in a nice little chart format. I’ve finally decided that I have looked so hard for it on the Discovery channel that at this point I am staring right at it and not seeing it. I’m sure you understand what I am saying, right? Further search led me to the TV Insider website where I found a layout by days of the week that I felt is easy to follow. Click here to see the TV Insider nicely laid out Shark Week schedule…
Of course, how do we completely enjoy this special week without some fun food and crafts to go along with it??? We started a few crafts early so we could share with everyone. Read through some of the old posts as well as this new one to bring some jaw-some fun to Shark Week 2021!
Shark Week 2021 Crafts ~
Starting with the old posts first, “dive in” to some of these below to start gathering ideas for fun food and crafts:
Now, let’s move forward to the first of this year’s crafts. The paper plate shark puppet made a real “splash” with the kiddos. One of the things I learned while doing these is you need to think ahead when painting anything so that you leave time for them to dry (especially because kids tend to paint very thick). Keep this in mind when working on the one!
Items Needed ~
- Paper Plate
- Hole Punch
- Paint (colors of your choice)
- Paint Brushes
- Yarn
- Marker
- Googly Eyes
- Scissors
- Tape
- Wax Paper or Newspaper
- Hot Glue
- Popsicle Stick or Tongue DepressorHot
Instructions for Paper Plate Shark ~
- Cut the middle ring of the paper plate out. Save this piece as you will be using it to make parts of the shark.
- Draw lines as shown in this figure below. All sections will be used to complete the craft. As always, don’t worry about perfection here. They will turn out adorable, I promise!
- Cut along all lines. The bottom curved section be used for the mouth (which you will cut teeth into). The other 3 sections will be used for pectoral and dorsal fins. This is why I stress perfection is not key. Let the kids do the cutting!
- Spread out a long sheet of wax paper (or newspaper) for this next step. We used another paper plate and squirted colors of choice on the plates for kids to work from. Lay each of the sections of the paper plate across the wax paper and let the kids start painting. Encourage them to get creative!
- Let all painted pieces dry. We moved on to another craft (shown below) while we “patiently” waited for our works of art to dry.
- Once dry, punch holes along the inside rim of the paper plate. Make at least 8 to 10 holes.
- Cut long strands of yarn of choice. You don’t want these to be too long or it will be hard for the kids to work with. We cut them about 12 to 18″.
- String yarn up through one hole in the plate. Pull completely through until you have a small section (about 1/2″) left on the underside of the plate. Tape that section down to the bottom of the plate to hold yarn in place.
- It is very helpful if you tie a knot in the end of the yarn that the kids are holding and pulling through the holes. This helps their little fingers to get it through the holes better and also helps with the yarn fraying.
- Have them continue to pull the yarn up and down through the holes (working from inside the plate) until they have a small section of yarn left. Tape that section to the bottom of the plate too. You can then stop there or if they want to “sew” some more, cut them another piece of yarn and let them continue to fill the inside of the plate with yarn.
- Hot glue the fins to the underside of the plate and the googly eyes and shark teeth to the yarn sections of the plate.
- Hot glue a tongue depressor to the bottom of the plate. It is helpful to write their names on the tongue depressor for future arguments of which one belongs to whom. This also makes it into a very fun shark puppet!
Fun Variations ~
You can also let the kids paint the entire paper plate before you do any cutting. This allows for them to not get paint scattered more when painting the smaller pieces. They can also use stampers and such to make fun designs on their sharks. In the first picture of this blog, the stick part of the paint brush was used to make fun polka dots!
Let the children mix two colors of yarn to “sew” with to make a more colorful shark. We stuck with blue and gray but you can, of course, get as colorful as you would like.
If you don’t have googly eyes, cut circles out of another paper plate or some paper and let the kids create their own shark eyes.
We used colored tongue depressors, but you can also use plain and paint them yourselves.
Stay tuned for the second sharky post this week for directions on another exciting Shark Week 2021 craft! I hope you enjoy learning about these fantastic creatures as much as we do!
I will leave you with these fun jokes to share ~
Q: What did the shark say after he was accused of eating a human?
A: Not gill-ty!
🤣🤣🤣
Q: What do you get when you cross a shark with a snowman?
A: Frostbite!
😂😂😂
Have a Fin-tastic week guys!
Much Love~
Mimi
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This is awesome! My three year old is obsessed with sharks!
Thanks! I hope you enjoy some of the shark craft and snack ideas with him! 😊
I can’t believe that shark week is in it’s 33rd year already!! How is that possible?
I know, right? Even though we have been following shark week for years, I was surprised when I saw 33 years too!
This is so awesome! I’ve never actually been into shark week. But you have made me look forward to it. I think my girls would really enjoy it!
It really is pretty interesting and entertaining. Plus you can work so many fun and educational things into the week with kids. I hope you give it a shot this year! Thanks for reading!
Love it! Shark week is a great time for some interactive shark activities.
It really is…so many fascinating opportunities to teach kids about sharks….and us adults too! 😉
What a super fun activity!
Thanks…we sure did enjoy it!
These are adorable to celebrate Shark Week!
Thanks! We just love Shark Week!
so cute! reminds me of the song baby shark something, lol
Lol…thanks! We certainly sing that song quite a bit with our grandkids! 😂😊
Oh my goodness, this craft is adorable! I may not be a grandmother yet, but I have worked with kids for most of my adult like and I will totally be showing this to my nephew! Such a cute little craft, plus who doesn’t love sharks!? Love it. Thanks for sharing!
Awww thanks! So glad you enjoyed it! I hope your nephew likes the craft as much as we do!
Love the crafts! Saving the jokes for my joke loving 5 year old 🙂
Glad you liked them! Thanks for reading! Who doesn’t love a good joke or two, right?😀