Step-by-step tutorial
Step 1
Getting the shark ready is a fun craft for the kids to work on or to help you with (depending on age). Draw two eyes on a tissue box. Cut out 8-10 white triangles for teeth. Cut out 6 fin shapes (as pictured), 3 angled to the right and 3 angled to the left. The fin shapes should all be the same size.
Step 2
Match two fins and glue them together. Leave the tabs at the bottom unglued and folded apart.
Step 3
Continue to pair up and glue the other fin pieces. Glue the tabs of the fins to the box.
Step 4
Tape or glue the teeth to the inside of the box. We used craft foam for the teeth because it is softer and feels cool when you reach your arm in the box.
Step 5
If your little one is working on learning colors, find different colored objects and put them in front of your child. She is working on letters and letter sounds so I grabbed a handful of letter magnets.
Step 6
"The shark is really hungry for a letter that makes the sound /b/". She finds the letter B and feeds it to the shark. Continue until all of the letters are eaten. If you are working on colors say, "The shark is so hungry for something red!".
Step 7
Once all of the letters are eaten, reverse the game. Have your child reach into the sharks mouth and pull out a letter (or colored object).
Step 8
What letter or letter sound did you pull out? This game is so fun! There's something about the shark and reaching into the mouth that makes kids forget that they are learning. Other ideas for younger kids: Objects to sort by size. Objects to sort by texture (hard/soft). Objects to count.
Step 9
For older children, put letters in the shark that spell a certain word. Have your child reach into the shark's mouth and pull out all of the letters.
Step 10
Rearrange the letters to make a word. This is a great way to practice spelling words.
Final result!
You can even play a money version of Shark Attack. Put a handful of coins in the shark box. Pull out the coins and identify each one and/or how much it is worth. When you get all of the coins out of the shark add them up to see how much money the shark tried to eat. So many possibilities for learning!
