Oil Pastel Sea Turtle Craft
We’ve been doing Marine Biology from The Good and The Beautiful this year. It has been so much fun! This week we studied marine reptiles and had a sea turtle craft to go along with it.
The project that they had suggested was mainly for younger kids, but I wanted to have all my kids join in on the project. (Their ages range from 4 to 11).
I was inspired by a leaf art project I had seen on Pinterest. So, I decided to create my own take on the sea turtle craft using oil pastels. I hope you and your family enjoy this fun project!
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Oil Pastel Sea Turtle Craft
We got our pattern for the head and the fins from The Good and The Beautiful Marine Biology. So, if you are using that this year, you can just use the copy they provide.
If you’re not using TGATB Marine Biology, here’s a sea turtle pattern you can swipe. >>> Sea Turtle Puppet Template.
Here’s what you’ll need for the Oil Pastel Sea Turtle Craft:
- Sea Turtle Puppet Template (from Marine Biology unit or the one provided above.)
- Crayons (Any old crayons will do.)
- Oil Pastels << We used these oil pastels for this project. They’re super affordable, and work great!
- 1 bottle of glue
- 1 glue stick
- 1 paper plate per child
Instructions
Step 1:
Flip your paper plate upside down and create a crisscrossed pattern across the back using your bottle of glue. You can try to mimic the pattern of a sea turtle shell if you’d like.
Put it to the side to dry.
Quick tip: Don’t make the glue line too thick because it takes a while to dry!
Here’s a picture of a sea turtle for reference:
Step 2:
While your “shell” is drying, color the head and legs of the sea turtle how you’d like using crayons.
You can choose to make yours more realistic like the image above, or use a solid color of your choice.
My kids chose to color their sea turtle cut-outs a solid color of their choice.
Cut out the pattern after it’s completely colored in and put it to the side for later.
(You can see the completed picture below!)
Step 3:
When the glue lines on your paper plate are completely dried, it’s time to start working on the shell!
Grab your oil pastels. Pick out mostly cool colors to use for your shells. Browns, purples, grey, greens, and we even used a little bit of yellow.
Fill in each shape with different colors and gently rub the colored area with your finger to blend. >>>
Quick tip: Color all the way to the edges of the plate. The glue will help keep the colors separated.
Step 4:
Use the glue stick to attach your sea turtle puppet pieces to the paper plate shell.
Attach them to the opposite side from what you colored.
And that’s it! Let it dry completely and you’re done!
The Finished Product: Oil Pastel Sea Turtle Craft
Each of our sea turtles turned out completely unique and different!
We hung our finished sea turtles up above our Science Wall. >>>
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Hello! I'm Jamie! I'm a wife and a Charlotte Mason inspired homeschooling mother of 5. I write about Charlotte Mason- inspired homeschooling, marriage, and parenting. Everything from pregnancy to pre-teens!