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August 18, 2011

Eric Carle would be So Proud!!

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We’ve continued our ocean-themed reading this week and on our list was another Eric Carle classic “A House for Hermit Crab”. My kids LOVE this story! I love the fact that it gives a message that you should treat your friends with love and respect.

If you aren’t familiar with the story, a Hermit Crab gets a new shell, thinks it looks pretty boring so he sets out over the next year to decorate it with new friends he finds along the way. After a year he has outgrown his shell but is sad to have to leave his friends behind. Another Hermit Crab comes along in need of a shell and he graciously offers to give him his shell, but only if he promises to take good care of his friends.

A couple weeks ago I saw THIS hermit crab made out of a hand print and a paper plate. I pinned it immediately and knew it was exactly what I was looking for to go along with this story. When we started making our craft we decided we wanted to re-create our favorite scene in the book. Behold, our Eric Carle masterpiece….

It’s very possible that some might think I’m over the top. I mean, did I really need to re-create our favorite scene in the book?… Yup! I sure did! And you know what, it was a masterpiece that we ALL DID TOGETHER and we are pretty darn proud of it, so if I’m over the top, then I don’t really care. hahaha!

So how did we do it???

1. Cover your child’s right hand in red paint and press it onto a piece of white card stock paper. This creates the crab body.

2. When it is completely dry, cut it out like pictured below.

3. For the shell we used one of those small paper plates. I didn’t have any on hand so ended up buying a package at Wal-Mart for $1.88. I’m sure we’ll use them for other crafts so I didn’t mind. Turn the paper right side up (the side you eat on) and on the left edge draw a squiggly line for the opening of the crabs shell. Cut it out, then turn it over.

4. Put some glue on the end of the hand print and attach it to the opening you just cut out on the paper plate. Then, using a black marker, draw the outline of the shell on the paper plate.

5. We wanted our hermit crab to be reminiscent of what was in the story, so we used water color paints to add some colors to his shell.

6. For the eyes we hot glued 2 pieces of pipe cleaners with wiggly eyes on the ends. Here is your completed crab. Isn’t he cute?? You could stop here if you want, but since I am an “over the top” kind of person (LOL!) we kept going.

7. Create all the little creatures that Hermit Crab had on his shell. I just winged this so I’m including close up pictures of the creatures so you can see them in more detail.

Snail

After taking this picture we decided to add a small wiggly eye to him so make sure you do that. I simply just cut the pieces of out construction paper to make him, cut a slit in my white circle to attach him to the snail and put glue on the back to stick the two pieces together. Oh, I used a hole punch to get the circles on the ends of his antennae. Then I used a black marker to draw the shell lines and my son colored his shell with colored pencils.

Sea Star

I cut the sea star shape out of blue card stock paper, then my son added some glue and sprinkled glitter on him to make him more colorful.

Sea Anemone
To make the sea anemone we started by cutting a rectangle out of green card stock paper. Then we cut a 1in. strip of orange tissue paper, cut that into six different sections, twisted the pieces up and glued it to the green paper.
Coral
To make the coral I just simply drew the shape onto a piece of yellow construction paper and cut it out. Then I had my son practice drawing tiny circles all over the entire thing. If you look closely in the book, that is how Eric Carle did his.
Laternfish

I forgot to take a picture of this one separate so I just enlarged it and it’s blurry, sorry. I found a free fish clip art on the Internet and just printed it out. Then my son colored it with a blue marker, cut it out, and used yellow puffy paint and glitter paint to make him light up like in the story.

8. After we created all the creatures, we glued them onto the Hermit Crab.

Again, you can totally stop now….But I figured since we got this far we mine as well create the WHOLE scene.

+

9. By this time, Andy was home from school and he wanted to help out with the project, so I had him take a blue crayon and make the squiggly blue water lines on a piece of white card stock paper, just like in the story. Then he put some glue on the bottom of the paper and sprinkled sand on the bottom.

10. Glue your Hermit Crab onto your created scene.

11. Next, cut out some rocks out of gray/silverish paper and glue then onto your paper around your crab.

12. Lastly, I cut out a sea urchin using a scrap piece of cardboard paper I had and Andy used marker to add some brown and black to him. Attach him to your paper and your masterpiece is complete.

A kind reader left me a comment telling me about a template that would help teachers with the decorations on the hermit crab. You can find them at Scholastic by clicking HERE.

Happy Crafting!!

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Filed Under: Seasonal 29 Comments

« Seahorse Craft for Kids with Lacing Practice
“I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean” with Squid Activity »

Comments

  1. Smallgood says

    August 18, 2011 at 6:45 PM

    Yes, I think Eric would be proud. And if I had made it I would have giggled myself silly with all the excitement.

    Reply
  2. Holly says

    August 18, 2011 at 7:01 PM

    so cute!

    Reply
  3. Rachel@I Heart Crafty Things says

    August 18, 2011 at 7:26 PM

    @SmallgoodThanks! It's certainly fun acting like a kid again & giggling with excitement! I like to think (and hope) it will slow down my aging process. hahahaha!

    Reply
  4. Lori says

    August 18, 2011 at 8:11 PM

    What do you mean missing out on my blog?! Your blog is wonderful! This is awesome, and yes Eric Carle would be proud of this! I love it!

    Reply
  5. Mercedes says

    August 18, 2011 at 9:52 PM

    That is absolutely fantastic. I am in love with this craft. I am going to have to put this on my pintrest for sure! What a fantastic keepsake as well!

    Reply
  6. Esther says

    August 19, 2011 at 9:57 PM

    That's a masterpiece! No wonder you are so proud! I will do the same

    Reply
  7. Little Wonders' Days says

    August 20, 2011 at 2:11 AM

    This is so cute! I love that everyone got involved to help make it.

    Reply
  8. Aimee from Classified: Mom says

    August 20, 2011 at 5:07 AM

    That turned out adorable! I love Eric Carle 😉

    Reply
  9. Lina - Fancy Frugal Life says

    August 20, 2011 at 5:14 AM

    Oh my kids live this book too 🙂 super cute craft!
    Lina

    Reply
  10. K. the Littlest Crafter says

    August 20, 2011 at 11:38 AM

    Whoa nelly! What an awesome project – you always have the best activities for kids!

    Reply
  11. JDaniel4's Mom says

    August 20, 2011 at 1:11 PM

    I think he would love it. I love how you layered the various crafts.

    Reply
  12. Love and Lollipops says

    August 21, 2011 at 6:22 PM

    Love your work of Art! 🙂

    Reply
  13. artsy_momma says

    August 24, 2011 at 8:07 PM

    That turned out awesome! I love all the added stuff to it. Thanks fr linking back to my blog post 🙂

    Reply
  14. Shoregirl says

    August 24, 2011 at 10:51 PM

    Super cute craft!

    Reply
  15. maggy, red ted art says

    August 25, 2011 at 2:50 PM

    Eric Carle REALLY would be proud! I love the handprint crab the best. But it is all brilliant!

    Maggy
    (as always, thank you for joining in at Kids Get Crafty!)

    Reply
  16. Jackie says

    August 26, 2011 at 2:21 AM

    OK…my pintrest is going to full your blog pages. They are just so great. Thanks!

    Reply
  17. Dianne says

    August 26, 2011 at 11:21 PM

    Another cute craft! I've actually never read this book, but your adorable craft makes me want to go out and get it.

    Reply
  18. Vicky says

    August 29, 2011 at 10:07 PM

    That is so cute! I just love the use of the handprint to personalize it.

    I am a new follower from the Sunday Showcase. If you have a moment stop by http://messforless.blogspot.com
    Thanks!

    Reply
  19. Shauna says

    September 1, 2011 at 8:51 PM

    Oh my goodness, this art project is seriously SO cute. I love it and I just pinned it on my pinterest account. So darling and I am excited about being a new follower of your blog. Can't wait to explore it more. I would LOVE for you to link this cute craft to my "All Things Wonderful" link party going on at my blog right now.
    Take care,
    Shauna
    myshaenoel.blogspot.com

    Reply
  20. Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas says

    September 4, 2011 at 3:07 AM

    what a fun craft. we read this story this summer and did a craft too – I like how you incorporated the story elements – we focused on decorating the shell!

    Thanks for sharing on the Sunday Showcase. Looking forward to seeing what you have to share this week.

    Bern
    http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com/search/label/Sunday%20Showcase

    Reply
  21. Kristy says

    September 6, 2011 at 4:03 PM

    Love this!!! I love Eric Carle stories and to have a craft like this to go along with it so perfectly is just great! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  22. Betsy says

    December 3, 2011 at 3:19 AM

    My class made these today! We didn't go all out like you did, but they still turned out cute!

    Reply
  23. Agrella family says

    January 23, 2012 at 6:11 AM

    Thank you so much for sharing…it's just what I needed for our co-op art class…not sure it will look like yours but so fun can't wait! Awesome creativity!

    Reply
  24. Ms. Jen, Ms. Amy says

    May 15, 2012 at 12:55 AM

    Thanks so much! I had pinned this off of pinterest and made it with my pre-k class last week. It was a week long process, but they turned out so cute. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply
  25. anastasia says

    June 1, 2012 at 11:48 AM

    For teachers who need templates for the decorations, here's a PDF from scholastic. http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/reproducibles/profbooks/houseforhermitcrab.pdf

    Reply
  26. Anonymous says

    July 16, 2012 at 4:25 AM

    Love this so much! I'm student teaching this summer at a daycare with 3-4 year olds and we just read this book on Friday. We made crab hats, but next week we'll be doing this as a two day project. Thanks for the great idea!

    Reply
  27. **** April **** says

    October 28, 2013 at 4:49 PM

    I'm doing a Children's Book Club for a Mom's League that I'm a part of…THANK YOU for this… AMAZING!!! 🙂

    Reply
  28. Paula Beckerman says

    March 28, 2014 at 5:32 PM

    I love this beautiful craft, and so did my kiddos – thank you for sharing! We read the book and did a modified version of the activity while reviewing the letter c, and I've included a link to you about it on my blog. http://paulaspreschoolandkindergarten.blogspot.com/search/label/crabs
    Thank you for sharing your ideas!

    Reply
  29. Victor says

    June 24, 2016 at 11:07 AM

    Thank you! I’m going to use with my class after reading the book. Way to go! And it looks like a lot of fun.

    Cheers!

    Victor

    Reply

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