Adorable Crumpled Paper Turtle Craft for Kids

Crumpling paper is a great fine motor activity for preschoolers. They can try it out with this adorable turtle craft for kids.

Preschoolers are fascinated with turtles. Animals that can carry their homes on their backs are amazing! Kids will love creating a fun turtle craft that they can customize with their favorite colors.

Turtle Craft

This adorable turtle craft is so versatile. You can add it to your turtle, pond, and Letter Tt lesson plans and activities. Kids will love it!

What You’ll Need

• colored paper

• pencil

• marker

• scissors

• glue

What You’ll Do

Cut your colored paper into 3cm x 3cm squares.

Begin crumpling the paper squares into tight balls. There is no exact number. Start with “a bunch”, and add more later if you need to.

Now, choose a few colored papers to build your turtle. Trace the template and cut it out with scissors.

Take the round cut out (your turtle’s shell), and start to glue the crumpled paper balls around the circle. I find it easiest to glue from one side to the other to contain the glue mess.

Continue to glue the crumpled papers balls until the “shell” is completely covered..

Try to attach the crumpled paper balls adjacent to each other and fill the entire round paper with them. This will be the shell of the turtle.

Once the shell is filled, allow the glue to dry.

Now, flip the shell over. Glue the head and feet to the underside of the shell (the side with no balls).

Now flip the paper turtle back to its right side and attach the eye cut outs on the head part. Use a black sharpie to draw the eyes on the white eye cut outs.

PRESCHOOL BOOKS ABOUT TURTLES

Fill your book basket with a great collection of turtle picture books. Most of these books can be found at your local library or used bookstore.If you have a hard time finding them, you can order them through my Amazon affiliate links by clicking the images below.

Good Night Little Turtle – It’s time for bed. But first, our little turtle needs to say goodnight to his animal friends. We follow him on a short adventure as he says goodnight, one-by-one, to his friend the sheep, bird, frog, dog, rabbit and lion. He brushes his teeth, gets a bedtime story of his own and drifts off to sleep.

The Box Turtle – Terrance the turtle was born without a shell, so he uses a cardboard box instead. Terrance loves his box. It keeps him dry on soggy days, safe from snooping strangers, and is big enough to cozy up with a friend. But when another turtle points out that Terrance’s shell is, well, weird, he begins to wonder whether there might be a better shell out there…

Franklin and the Thunderstorm – Franklin is afraid of thunderstorms. When a storm approaches while he is playing at Fox’s house, a flash of lightning sends Franklin into his shell. He refuses to come out — even for snacks — until his friends make him laugh with their tall tales about what causes storms. And when Beaver explains what really causes thunder and lightning, Franklin begins to feel much safer.