Turtle Craft

We got a new hot glue gun. Lydia and Zoe were itching to try it out so we decided to make turtles using some materials we had laying around the house. We based this on an idea we saw pinned on Pinterest from etsy. Looks like you can’t get the pre-made craft kits anymore but it’s easy enough to do it with materials you have on hand at home.

Zoe and he finished Turtle craft project
Zoe and her Turtle

What you need

  • Round plastic container (a recycled salad or fruit container works well…)
  • Contruction paper
  • Pencil
  • Hot glue gun & glue (or any type of glue, hot glue just speeds things up a bit)
  • Googly eyes

What we did

We started by tracing the bottom of the container onto a piece of construction paper.

Lydia traces the turtle body
Lydia traces the turtle body

Then we drew the legs, tail and head around the edge of the circle to make the turtle body.

Zoe adding legs to the turtle shell
Zoe adding legs to the turtle shell

Next cut out the body template out and set it aside.

Turtle body cut and ready for the shell
Turtle body cut and ready for the shell

Now for the shell. Start by cutting strips of construction paper. Then cut the strips into squares. We used yellow and green.

Attach the squares to the shell with hot glue. We didn’t follow a specific pattern but generally used one color then the next as we worked our way around the shell.

Then cut the strips into squares.
Then cut the strips into squares.

Next attach the shell. Put a few dabs of glue around the outside edge of the body template first.

Zoe attaches the shell
Zoe attaches the shell

Last but not least attached the googly eyes and any other embellishments. We put dried hot glue dots on top. The girls were fascinated with how the glue dried.

What we thought

We had a lot of fun, especially since we were using our new hot glue gun!! So much to learn including not to touch the hot end — ouch! We ended up spreading this out over a couple of hours as it was pretty time intensive but you can speed things up by cutting out the bits and pieces first. Lydia and Zoe did all of the prep work for our turtle craft in addition to actually putting the turtle together so that took some time. All and all we enjoyed the process and the product. Would definitely recommend this project to anyone who wants to make a turtle craft with their kiddos!

Turtles!
Tutrles!

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