DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Paper Plate Submarine Porthole or Aquarium Window Craft

This paper plate porthole provides the perfect opportunity for kids to "see what's under the sea".  It's a good craft for an ocean theme, aquarium theme or habitats theme.

You can use the templates I've designed as a coloring page behind your porthole or decorate your own with markers, stickers, goldfish crackers and tissue paper.

Materials:

• paper plate,
• silver, white, gold or grey paint and paint brush
• cheerios -- you need about a dozen for the craft and, if your kids are anything like mine, half a box for nibbling on while making the craft!
• a drinking straw or a pretzel
• scissors,
• glue,
• one piece of blue construction paper or cardstock
• clear plastic (we used the clear half of a large ziploc bag)
• Optional - if using template:
  • paper,
  • printer,
  • something to color with
•  Optional - if not using template:
  • gold fish crackers
  • green tissue paper (for kelp)
  • markers or pencil crayons
  • ocean stickers

Instructions:

• Cut a circle from the center of a paper plate.
• If making a porthole:  For the handle:
  • Glue cheerios to each end of a 2 inch length of a straw or a pretzel and then glue to the paper plate
     
    or
  • glue a milk carton cap and then glue to the paper plate.
• Glue cheerios around the outside of the plate as decorative “bolts”
• Paint the whole plate, including the cheerios silver, grey, white or gold.
• Let dry.
• Optional:  Glue a piece of clear plastic inside the paper plate to cover your porthole  (the clear half of large freezer Ziploc bags work well for this… I find saran wrap a bit too clingy and difficult to work with)

Option 1:  Decorate Your Own Background

• Cut out the circle of construction paper or cardstock but don’t glue it onto the paper plate yet.
• Leaving space for glue, decorate your blue construction paper with images from the ocean or an aquarium:
  • You can glue crumpled green tissue paper strips as kelp.
  • You can make fingerprint fish or glue goldfish crackers onto your plate.
  • You can even hot glue real seashells toward the bottom of the paper.
  • use markers or stickers to add details.
• Glue the paper plate over the decorated construction paper or cardstock so you can see your
  decorations through the hole.

Option 2:  Use a Template

• Print out the template of choice.
• Color the template pieces if using the B&W version.
• Cut out the template.
• Glue the paper plate over the template so you can see it through the hole

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Template (ocean scene):    (color)   or   (B&W)

Template (octopus):           (color)   or   (B&W)

Template (shark):               (color)   or   (B&W)

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