Whale Shark Craft for Kids [Free Printable Template]
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Ocean lovers in your classroom or at home will enjoy creating a whale shark craft that brings the sea right to their table. This hands-on kids ocean activity gives children ages 5–7 a chance to create an underwater scene featuring a gentle giant gliding past shells, coral, and swaying seaweed. In about 20–25 minutes, kids can strengthen their fine motor skills through this engaging ocean animal craft.
If your ocean explorers are fascinated by life beneath the waves, we have lots of fun ideas for them. Take a moment to browse through even more of our ocean crafts for kids to learn about marine life.
Fun Ocean Animal Activity
This creative whale shark craft turns simple materials into an imaginative seascape. Children will create an ocean scene where a whale shark swims among coral, shells, and flowing seaweed. It’s a fun way to encourage storytelling while introducing fascinating ocean creatures through a hands-on marine life craft.
When kids cut and glue their scene together, they’ll improve fine motor skills, focus, and creativity. It also opens the door to early science conversations about whale sharks and their ocean habitat.
Our printable template makes this project really easy to set up and follow along. Gather some colored paper, scissors, and glue to bring the scene to life and watch kids enjoy making their own underwater world. This fun activity is a great addition to any ocean lessons, animal studies, or habitats lessons.
Supplies
- Colored cardstock or construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Markers
- Crayola Bold & Bright markers
- Whale Shark Template (click the “click here to get your freebies” image at the end of the post)
Directions
Start by printing the template, then gather the materials for this fun activity. Get those scissors ready, and let’s help the kids bring this whale shark to life!
Take the belly piece and glue it onto the bottom portion of the shark body.
Grab the eyes and glue them onto the whale shark’s face. It’s always exciting when the character starts getting its personality.
Time to add the mouth. Glue it in between the eyes to give your whale shark a big happy smile!
Glue the front fin to the side of the shark’s body, just below the gills.
Using a white marker, add spots all over the whale shark’s body and fins. This is one of the most fun parts because whale sharks are covered in beautiful white markings. Let kids create their own unique pattern.
Let’s build the underwater habitat. Take the sand piece and glue it along the bottom of your blue background paper. This will become the ocean floor where your whale shark swims.
Using a tan or brown marker, add small dots across the sand piece. These little details make the ocean floor look more realistic and add extra texture to the scene.
Glue the coral, seaweed, and shell pieces onto the sand. Encourage your child to decide where each piece should go. No two ocean scenes need to look the same!
It’s time for the star of the show! Glue the completed whale shark above the sand so it looks like it’s swimming through the ocean.
Finish the craft by drawing simple wave lines around the whale shark with a blue marker. These little ocean details help fill the background and make the finished craft look bright, fun, and ready for an underwater adventure!
Making this whale shark craft gives kids a chance to learn about marine animals through hands-on play. As they build and decorate their shark, they’ll also practice important early learning skills.
If you’re planning an ocean theme, don’t miss the related crafts and activities below. They’re a great way to expand on what kids learn and add variety to your lessons or activity plans.
Ocean Books for Children
The Snail and the Whale– Julia Donaldson, author of the famous book The Gruffalo, brings kids another fun book about an unlikely set of friends. Snail and Whale have lots of fun together in this colorful book!
Shark Lady– This children’s book is based upon the true story of Eugenie Clark, aka, The Shark Lady. Learn about her love of sharks, her discoveries, and the inspiring message of going after what you want in life.
The Rainbow Fish -This is a classic children’s book with a wonderful message for children. In it, a fish learns to share his favorite possession, his glittery scales, with his friends!
Ocean Animal DIYs
Jellyfish Paper Chain Craft – Your little creators will love this jellyfish made with paper chain tentacles. Cutting, looping, and linking the strips is a great way for kids to develop fine motor control. They can mix and match colors to make a one of a kind sea friend while working on scissor skills, coordination, and imagination.
Paper Plate Pufferfish Craft – Turn a simple paper plate into a puffer fish by adding paint and details using our free template. Your little artists can design how they want their pufferfish to look by choosing their favorite colors. Painting, cutting, and gluing are great ways for them to build fine motor skills and bring their fishy friend to life.
Torn Paper Crab Craft – Kids can create a snappy sea friend by making a crab with torn paper and our free template. Ripping and gluing pieces adds texture and a fun look while little hands stay busy building fine motor skills and bilateral coordination.
Whale Name Craft – Make a splash with your students by having them make a whale that turns learning into play. Kids will create a paper whale and add little fish holding a letter of their name. This hands-on activity improves letter recognition and spelling skills while encouraging creativity. Use our editable pdf to type in the child’s name before printing!
No-Prep Sea Life Worksheets for Kids
Learning with these ocean do a dot printables will be an ocean of fun. They turn educational worksheets into hands-on fun with dot markers.
Kids will explore sea creatures, shells, and waves while dotting letters, shapes, and puzzles. They’ll build fine motor skills, counting skills, and early reading confidence with a variety of pages that’ll keep them happily engaged and dotting their way through underwater scenes.
Grab the scissors and go on an adventure at sea with these engaging ocean cutting practice pages. Kids will follow wavy paths to an octopus, match numbers with sea creatures, and piece together ocean animals.
Zigzags, curves, and straight lines will keep little hands busy and focused. These fun activities are great for strengthening fine motor skills, coordination, and early math understanding while keeping kids happily entertained.
Make waves this summer with these jaw-some shark activity pages kids will love. Little ones can tackle matching shadows, swimming through a maze, matching ocean objects, and counting and graphing sea life.
These different puzzles build observation and problem solving skills while keeping kids engaged and curious as they learn with exciting sharks.
These jellyfish dot to dots are a great no prep activity to pull out anytime. Kids will reveal three wiggly jellyfish friends ready for coloring once they connect all the dots.
This easy activity builds number recognition and fine motor skills while giving kids a chance to add their own splash of color to the ocean scenes.
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Free Whale Shark Template
Whale Shark Craft
Video
Materials
- Colored cardstock or construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Markers
- Crayola Bold & Bright markers
- Whale Shark Template
Instructions
- Print the template and gather the materials for this fun activity.
- Begin by gluing the belly piece onto the bottom portion of the shark body.
- Look for the eyes and glue one onto each curved side of the belly.
- Color in the mouth and glue it in between the eyes, on the belly piece.
- Attach the front fin to back and top of the whale shark's body, just in front of the tail fin.
- Use a blue or white Crayola Bold & Bright marker to draw small dashed lines across the shark's body and fins.
- Glue the sand piece along the bottom of the background paper.
- Draw small dots of sand across the sand piece.
- Color in the seaweed, coral, and shell pieces and glue them onto the sand.
- Glue the completed whale shark above the sand on the background.
- Finally, draw blue wave lines around the whale shark to complete the ocean scene.
Did you make this?
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Meet Sam
Sam is the crafter and founder of Simple Everyday Mom. She has been featured in Oprah Mag, Good Housekeeping, The Spruce Crafts, Country Living, The Bump, and more.
