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.
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.
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.
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!!
Yes, I think Eric would be proud. And if I had made it I would have giggled myself silly with all the excitement.
so cute!
@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!
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!
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!
That's a masterpiece! No wonder you are so proud! I will do the same
This is so cute! I love that everyone got involved to help make it.
That turned out adorable! I love Eric Carle 😉
Oh my kids live this book too 🙂 super cute craft!
Lina
Whoa nelly! What an awesome project – you always have the best activities for kids!
I think he would love it. I love how you layered the various crafts.
Love your work of Art! 🙂
That turned out awesome! I love all the added stuff to it. Thanks fr linking back to my blog post 🙂
Super cute craft!
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!)
OK…my pintrest is going to full your blog pages. They are just so great. Thanks!
Another cute craft! I've actually never read this book, but your adorable craft makes me want to go out and get it.
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!
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
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
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!
My class made these today! We didn't go all out like you did, but they still turned out cute!
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!
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!
For teachers who need templates for the decorations, here's a PDF from scholastic. http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/reproducibles/profbooks/houseforhermitcrab.pdf
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!
I'm doing a Children's Book Club for a Mom's League that I'm a part of…THANK YOU for this… AMAZING!!! 🙂
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!
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