Shark Hat

Materials

• Books and pictures of sharks  
• cardboard or oak tag  
• pencil  
• scissors  
• 12" x 18" white and blue construction paper  
• white glue  
• light gray tempera paint 
• paintbrushes  
• medium-point black marker  
• 15mm wiggly eyes  
• paper cutter  
• stapler

What to do

1. Have a discussion about sharks. Show the children pictures and books about different types of sharks, such as the great white, the hammerhead, the leopard, and the nurse shark.
2. Discuss how sharks have a keen sense of smell and how they help to clean the ocean by eating dead fish and animals. If possible, show the class shark teeth.
3. Make shark and fin patterns out of cardboard or oak tag.
4. Help the children trace the shark and fins on white paper and cut them out.
5. Demonstrate where to glue the fins on the shark. Allow the glue to dry, then ask them to paint their sharks gray.
6. After the paint has dried, encourage the children to draw a mouth, teeth, and gills with a black marker, then let them glue on a wiggle eye.
7. Use a paper cutter to cut blue paper into 3" x 18" strips (adult only).
8. Give a strip to each child and demonstrate how to cut waves.
9. Help the children staple the water strip to their shark to form a blue headband the size of the child's head. The middle of the shark becomes part of the headband with the head and tail of the shark sticking out.