Beware kids love creating sharks out of paper rolls!

A simple recycled paper roll can transform into water sharks kids will delight in making.

Very inexpensive project easy to manage with young to middle-aged kids.

Save on buying new materials and saving trees.

This project was inspired by one of my young art students who loves sharks.

I went to my creative team to figure out an eco shark art project.

Presto…. paper roll sharks!

Kids craft ideas – Free Paper Roll Shark Painting Project

1. Collect the materials

• Recycled Paper Rolls

• Kids Paints

• Eyes (goggley eyes, fabric scraps or buttons can be used)

• Paint brush – wide

• Paint palette

• Water jar

• Napkins

• Scissors

• Glue

• Shark templet shape

All types of paint can work for this art project, we used our acrylic kids paints in our demonstration. Use only non-toxic kids paints. Our acrylic works best on paper rolls giving a nice opaque coverage over cardboard. Large wide paint brushes work best for this project plus a few small brushes for details. Sponge type brushes can also work well. A painters palette or egg carton will hold paints for dipping. Water jar for dipping and cleaning brushes in-between colors. Napkins for paint bush clean up or messy hands. Baby wipes work awesome for messy painted hands.

shark templet 1.

shark paper roll templet — shark templet 2.

Shark templet

Trim templet pattern out and place on top of flatten paper roll and trace. Be sure your paper roll is flattened for easy tracing. Any thing will work for tracing pencil, marker or crayon it will be trimmed and painted away. Once shape is traced trim shape out with scissors and unflatten paper roll popping it back into a roll shape.

Fin

Use scraps for making fin shape for shark or fish creature. Glue fins on with kids glue or glue gun. I found it easier and sturdier to cut a open slit and place fin inside and glue, this seem to make it last longer from kids playing with sharks.

Teeth

You can cut out sharp teeth by drawing ahead of time with a pencil or just free hand cutting teeth out. Kids can also just paint or draw on teeth with white paint.

Eyes

Glue eyes on with children’s glue or glue gun

2. Set the environment

• A space to get messy

• Good lighting

• Flat work-station

• Materials

• Smock or clothes that can get messy

It’s important to have a place children can get messy and withstand spills. Be sure table and chairs are at the level of the child. Materials should be easy for children to reach during entire project making.

3. Child-led & Adjustable for all ages

This project can be achieved by many skill levels and easily adjusted for toddler to middle aged kids. (Read more about this fame work in my new book)

Paper Roll Prep I recommend cutting sharks out ahead of time for kids under 5 years or kids not using scissors yet. Kids can paint and embellish with ease if shapes are cut out ahead of time.

Tracing and cutting can work well with older kids. Allow independent kids to trace and cut out themselves. If your kids are fine motor capable then this is great for them. Be sure to have plenty of extras paper rolls for mistakes. Young kids cutting will need time to understand how the templet pattern works by tracing and cutting out.

4. Exploration & Time

The most important part of this project is allowing children time to explore and making art with their own hands.

Older children will spend more time painting and embellishing their creatures.

Mature students usually try different shapes other than sharks. The best time duration for young children is usually 15-30 minutes for project and older students can go past 40 minutes to an 1 hour.

The common process you can expect for these ages is:

15 months – 6 years: Children will learn to dip into paint, learn to make a brush strokes, play in palettes and mix, swish water around in jars, learn to spread paint over sharks and delight in the process. Most areas on shark will not be covered completely. Using hands in paints and explore by covering art or table is common. This is all perfect and normal.

6 – 9 years old: Children will want to make their sharks unique and spend time exploring how the fins can crate a different look on each shark.

These ages quickly learn how to use materials and don’t need to be guided in the process of making. One or two demonstrations is only necessary.

10 – 15 years old: Children will enjoy the mix-media aspect of this project and create many versions. Students at this leave will spend careful time planning designs. These student can work longer durations independently.

No part of this blog may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.