Let’s Make Crabs On The Beach With Cupcake Liners

Here’s an educational and summery little craft project to do with your little one!

Age Range: 3 – 4 years

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Primary Skills: Fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination

Materials:

• Sheet of plain paper/coloured paper
• Cupcake liners/coloured paper/plain paper/newspaper
• Brown wrapping paper
• Paints
• Sponge
• Container
• Scissors
• Glue
• Marker/sketch pen
• White crayon (optional)
• Glitter (optional)
• Googly eyes (optional)

Instructions:

• Let’s start by making the beach background. Take a sheet of blue coloured paper, or plain paper which your child can paint in light blue. Let dry. This is the sea!
• Next, cut out a piece of brown wrapping paper (see image for reference) for sand. If using plain paper, let your child paint it a light brown. Let dry. Then, paste it at the bottom of the blue coloured paper. The beach is ready! Set this aside.
• Next, let’s make the body of the crab. This can be done in any of the following ways:
  • If you are using a cupcake liner, open it out into a circle, fold it in half, and cut along the fold to get two semi-circles. These are the two crab bodies.
  • If you are using red coloured paper, you can either draw and cut a circle, and follow the same steps as above, or you can fold the paper in half, draw a semi-circle, and cut it out through the layers.
  • Follow the same steps as above if you want to use plain paper or newspaper!
• To paint the crab’s body (if using cupcake liner, plain paper or newspaper), take out some red paint in a wide and shallow container, and add a bit of water to it to make the paint more fluid. Then, give your child a sponge and show him how to dip it in the red paint, and press the colour all over the crab body. Let dry.
• Then, paste the crabs on the ‘beach’, however and wherever you like!
• Next, make the claws of the crabs. Fold your paper of choice into 2 layers (if you are making only one crab) or into 4 layers (if you are making two crabs). Draw the claw on the top layer (see image: a wide V-shape with a semi-circle connecting the arms around the bottom). Cut this out carefully. You should have two claws per crab!
• If using plain paper or newspaper, paint these claws in the same red colour as the body, and let them dry.
• Then, using red sketch pen or red paint with a paintbrush, draw 3 pairs of legs on each crab on the beach, and 1 pair of arms (see image for reference).
• Paste the claws on top of the arms. Let dry.

• With a marker, draw a pair of eyes on each crab. If you have googly eyes, you can use those for a fun look!
• Lastly, use a white crayon or white paint to draw ‘waves’ on the blue sea, and sprinkle some glitter across the sand to complete the beachy look!

Wasn’t that a fun and engaging craft activity? Try this DIY project with your child and enjoy the vacations to the fullest!