16 Cute Turtle Crafts for Preschoolers and Beyond
With a variety of kids’ crafts on hand, you’ll always have a fun project ready to captivate your little ones in an instant!
These simple turtle crafts for kids are not only entertaining but also a great way for them to hone essential skills. The beauty of these crafts lies in their ability to repurpose old items, engage and educate your children, and require minimal extra supplies or help.
Whether your children prefer sea turtles or box turtles, crafting these shelled reptiles will surely bring them joy and creativity! 🐢✨
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Supplies Needed for These Turtle Crafts
Before jumping into the crafts, let’s review some basic materials you will need for these turtle crafts for kids. Most of these items can be found in your home, at a local craft store, or on Amazon.
Pick and choose what supplies you use for which projects, and change things as needed.
Most importantly, have fun!
Art supplies for these fun turtle crafts include:
- Pipe cleaners
- Paper cups and plates
- Pom poms
- Paint (and brushes)
- Writing and coloring utensils (markers, pens, pencils, crayons)
- Googly eyes
- Construction paper or cardstock
- Scissors and glue
- Stapler
- Origami paper
- Styrofoam balls
- Buttons
- Glitter or glitter paper
16 Easy Turtle Crafts for Kids
Kiddos of all ages will adore these adorable reptile crafts! With their tough outer shells, sleek heads, and retractable legs for moments of fear or safety. Turtles are captivating beings that have enchanted generations of youngsters.
Dive into the world of delightful turtle crafts suitable for preschoolers and beyond. The instructions to each specific craft is located in the link below each image. Enjoy!
1. Try a Turtle Paper Cup Craft
Kids are sure to have fun with this easy, creative art project. Best of all, it doesn’t need a lot of materials, so it’s a great craft when you want a quick project to do on a moment’s notice. Grab your craft kit and find green pipe cleaners, googly eyes, green paint, a small pom pom ball, and a paper cup.
2. Colorful Shell Sea Turtle
You can use a paper plate and basic supplies, including several paper colors, to create this colorful sea turtle craft. The simple instructions let your kids practice their cutting, painting, and gluing skills. You can print the template and give your kids as much help as they request or let them do it all independently.
3. Craft an Origami Turtle
Origami is a fun paper craft hobby for kids of all ages. This hobby can also improve hand-eye coordination, sequencing, concentration, and spatial recognition. The best thing about origami is that all you need is a piece of paper. Your kids can do it anywhere.
By Mom Brite
4. Cutie Turtle Plant Holder
Terracotta pots make the perfect canvas to get creative with some paint and glue. Along with pots (this project uses four 1.5″ diameter pots and a 4″ diameter saucer), you’ll also need googly eyes, paint, buttons, a 2″ styrofoam ball, and typical craft supplies like glue, a pencil, and a paintbrush.
Related craft ideas:
- 17 Fun Bear Crafts for Preschoolers and Beyond
- 15 Easy Octopus Crafts For Kids
- 15 Totally Adorable Panda Crafts For Kids
- 20 Simple Bird Crafts for Kids
5. Plan a 3D Turtle Paper Plate Project
Paper plates are a staple in most homes, and they’re an affordable craft supply that’s easily available at any store. This simple craft is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers to complete quickly. Grab your green paint (or green paper plates), a paper cup, googly eyes, glitter paper, glue, and the template downloaded from the link below.
Related craft: 23 Paper Plate Animal Crafts for Kids
6. Pinch a Clay Turtle Pot Project
Clay can be a neat sensory project for young kids to get creative with their hands. You can use air clay, so you don’t have to cook your project, making it great for elementary-aged kids. You’ll need white clay, a work surface, acrylic paints, skewers, and water.
7. Create a Cute Turtle Card
This adorable craft makes a perfect custom project for Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or a birthday. You’ll need colored construction paper or cardstock, basic art supplies, and the turtle template (below) from Simple Everyday Mom.
8. Produce a Sea Turtle from Popsicle Sticks
With three large popsicle sticks and a few other supplies, your kids can quickly create this triangle sea turtle. It lets you recycle newspaper, a clothespin, a medium pompom, googly eyes, construction paper, basic art supplies, and the sea turtle template found below.
Related craft: 16 Popsicle Stick Animal Crafts for Kids
9. Moveable Paper Plate Turtle Craft
This fun turtle craft for kids converts two small paper plates into a colorful turtle. Grab your trusty googly eye supply, construction paper, double-sided tape, cardstock, a glue gun, and a pen. Once you’re done, why not give this paper plate cloud craft a try!
10. Glue Together a Sweet Sea Turtle
This simple craft lets your child practice their cutting and gluing skills. And best of all, it needs next to nothing in terms of crafts. Get your handy glue and scissors, print the templates on cardstock or construction paper, and assemble them.
11. Design a 3D Turtle Friend
This neat craft creates a textured turtle that your children will enjoy looking at as much as they do making it. You’ll need construction paper, a paper plate, some paint, googly eyes, and the template from here.
12. Use Recycled Materials to Create a Turtle
This simple turtle craft for kids uses basic craft supplies you already have and some recycled newspapers. It’s the perfect rainy day last-minute project for your kids to complete solo. Print the template and supply googly eyes, coloring utensils, construction paper, and old newspapers.
13. Washi Tape Turtle Shell Project
This project uses Washi tape to create a pattern along a turtle’s shell, made from a paper plate and the turtle template found here. Add Googly eyes and use the Washi tape to lay out your pattern. Your kids can get as creative as they want with the pattern on their tape and the turtle shell.
14. Paper Bag Turtle Puppet Craft
Kids of all ages will enjoy creating a puppet show with this too cute, adorable turtle craft. For this project, you’ll need a brown paper bag, colored paper – construction or cardstock – and a turtle template. Your children will have fun cutting and gluing the template pieces to the bag and putting on a show.
Once you’re done, try one of these fun puppet crafts!
15. Make a Creative Turtle Headband
Your kids – and possibly yourself – will have as much fun making this headband as wearing it. Sign up for this turtle template and grab your colored paper – cardstock or construction – scissors and glue. Or you can use white paper and color the turtle headband before cutting and assembling.
16. Cut Up an Egg Carton to Make a Turtle Craft
If you enjoy recycling old materials, like paper egg cartons, you’ll enjoy this simple and adorable turtle craft. After painting an egg cup green with Tempera paint, apply a large pom pom, pipe cleaners, and a pair of googly eyes using a hot glue gun.
Use the remaining egg carton cups to create this creative 3-D butterfly craft, so you’re not wasting supplies.
Try These Simple Turtle Crafts for Kids
In this blog post, we explore fun and creative turtle crafts for kids. Turtles are fascinating creatures that kids love to learn about, making these crafts both educational and entertaining. From paper plate turtles to handprint turtles, there is something for every age and skill level. These crafts also use simple materials that can be found around the house, making them budget-friendly.
These crafts are not only fun for kids but also promote fine motor skills and imaginative play. So gather your supplies and get ready to create some adorable turtle-themed crafts with your little ones!
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Check out our other kids’ craft ideas. Here are a few of our favs!
