Looking for some easy and fun beach crafts for kids? We’ve got you covered with these simple ideas kids will love and so will you!
Living near the beach ourselves we visit the seaside a lot no matter what the season but beach crafts can be perfect for during the spring and summer when lots of people are taking vacations or thinking about it.
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Beach Crafts for Kids
One of the things that I like about the beach as a topic is that it can be so diverse, meaning that you can find something creative to do no matter what your child’s interests.
Yes, of course there’s the actual beach itself but then you’ve also got things that you take to the beach like beachballs and buckets and spades and then there’s also wildlife and nature that we might associate with the beach or ocean like fish, crabs, seagulls and sharks.
Hopefully you’ll find some inspiration in this list to help you find some ways to recreate some holiday fun at home, in the classroom, in your preschool or even at a beach themed party!
Beach Craft Ideas
1. Paper Plate Craft
Grab the paints or markers and make this cute paper plate beach craft, what will you add to the scene?
2. Shell Suncatcher
This shell suncatcher craft uses one of our free printable templates to create a project that will look great up in your window. We’ve used tissue paper and shredded paper for ours but this would look super bright if you used cellophane.
3. Shell Animals
Shells themselves can be a great way to inspire creativity – we’ve made a shell lion before but my favourite is this shell whale. Just grab some pains, markers and paper and see what you can come up with!
4. Create Decorations
These seashell decorations are ones that I made with my kids several years ago after a trip to the beach. We’ve used salt dough to make them but clay would be another great option.
Once your decorations are dry you could add the date of your trip to the back of them and use them of a keepsake of your day.
5. Mermaid Headbands
These printable mermaid headbands from Simple Everyday Mom are so cute and kids can color in the designs too, they’d be perfect for a bit of beach inspired imaginative play.
6. Surfboard Craft
Surfing is a popular choice round our home, whether it’s watching it or taking part. This tape resist surfboard craft from And Next Comes L would be great to make as kids can design their own board.
7. Cupcake Liner Jellyfish
We love crafts that use materials that are easy to get hold of and ones that you are likely to already have are even better so this cupcake liner jellyfish craft from Messy Little Monster is a great choice. The rainbow streamers looks fantastic too!
8. Sea Collage
This paper plate sea collage is one that I made with my daughter when she was a preschooler. This is a really simple way to make ocean scenes and while we’ve added paper fish you could add other creatures maybe even using stickers for this.
9. Sailboat Craft
The Best Ideas for Kids uses torn paper for this sailboat craft that’s a great activity for creating your own ocean craft. This could be a great use for scrap paper too.
10. Crab Craft
We made this paper plate crab craft using torn paper. The finished craft rocks too so it’s a fun one to play with after you’ve made it too.
11. Seahorse Craft
Ok, so you might not see many seahorses on your average beach visit but they’re an animal that’s always really popular with kids (and adults too!) so I couldn’t help include them!
This seahorse craft is made using one of our free printable templates along with bleeding tissue paper and we loved the way the colors turned out.
12. Shell Frames
Collected some seashells on your day out? This shell frame from Rhythms of Play is a great way to craft with them and the addition of the handprint makes it into a great keepsake too.
13. Rainbow Fish Craft
This fish craft is one that I made with my daughter when she was two so it’s a great one for toddlers and preschoolers.
You could match this to reading the Rainbow Fish book or just create it for fun and choose your favorite colors for your fish.
14. Sandcastle Craft
Buggy and Buddy share a fun tutorial for a 3D sandcastle craft that’s made with play sand. I think this would be great for some small world play with toys too.
15. Sand Clay Keepsakes
I love this beach craft from The Imagination Tree which uses a homemade sand clay recipe to create handprint keepsakes with treasures found at the beach.
16. Shark Craft
Ok, admittedly you don’t really want to bump into any sharks on a beach trip but that doesn’t mean that you can’t make some fun shark craft!
This painted shark craft is really easy to prepare using one of our free printable templates and uses materials that you probably have at home already.
17. Driftwood Craft
These driftwood aliens are such a simple craft but it’s one that both of my kids enjoyed. On a trip to the beach we gathered some driftwood and then once we were at home we colored it and added some googly eyes to turn them into aliens that the kids could play with.
With a bit more patience or older kids you could probably make your driftwood look more like people but for my kids being able to just do something creative that didn’t have to look perfectly like something worked really well.
18. Seashell Self Portrait
Fantastic Fun and Learning has the perfect craft for those natural materials that you find at the shore, grab a mirror and create these brilliant shell art projects.
19. Beach Ball Craft
Beach ball’s are something that always remind me of fun days out so why not create your own with this cool coffee filter beach ball craft from Look We’re Learning.
20. Shell Jewelry
Another great use for any shells that you have, make these brilliant salt dough shell pendants following the tutorial form Red Ted Art.
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