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Ocean Animal Canvas for mixed age groups

Welcome back to our 4th week of storybook summer and we’re going to go under the sea with some our favourite bloggers sharing great under the sea-themed books and creating fantastic activities to bring them alive. Today we welcome Kim from Life Over C’s to join us sharing the book Ocean Animals Flippy Floppy book from Usborne so over to Kim…

One of my favorite themes to explore with my kids is the ocean. It seems that no matter what age you are, the ocean always holds something too extraordinary to explore and discover. The Ocean Animals Flippy Floppy book
from Usborne captures that sense of wonder in such a fun way! The ocean animals hidden in each page caught the attention of not just my preschooler, but all of my girls (even my 12-year-old!) We had a read & paint time that was so much fun while we explored all the pictures in the book.

Ocean Animal Canvas art projects for mixed age groups based on the illustrations in Ocean Themed Storybooks

I have seen so many lift-the-flap books over the years, but none quite like this one. I am absolutely amazed at how the flaps of this book turn into the beautiful animals portrayed on each “find me” page.

Every turn of the page introduces a new sea creature and asks the child “Can you find me?”

Each flap on the right side of the page, shows a new animal (even some we’d never heard of before) in bright, beautiful colors, but the original animal is no where to be seen.

Ocean Animal Canvas art projects for mixed age groups based on the illustrations in Ocean Themed Storybooks
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Until…

All the flaps have been turned you can see that just like a puzzle all the flaps fit together perfectly to reveal the original animal.

Ocean Animal Canvas art projects for mixed age groups based on the illustrations in Ocean Themed Storybooks

We fell in love with the bright pictures and tried to think of the perfect art project to go along with it. I very rarely do “crafts” with my kids. Simply meaning that when we start a project we often do not have a step-by-step plan or specific end result in mind.

Instead, we have all of our art materials at hand and we can pick and choose depending on our mood. Our only rule is that the table has to be cleared at meal times.

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This time the kids decided that they wanted to paint. Even my special needs preschooler is starting to get excited about painting. She is terrified of getting dirty though, so we keep lots of wet wipes handy to wash her off when she gets a drop of paint on her.

My only guidance for the project was that “maybe” they would like to paint a picture using the techniques that they saw in the book.

They pulled out some canvases that I had gotten the day before, the liquid watercolors and an array of paintbrushes.

I love how my 12-year-old noticed the fine details like the highlights on the animals as if the sun was shining right through the water. This was her first attempt at free-handing a painting and the texturing that she added was fantastic.

Each picture was a bit different. Especially Shiloh’s painting “scribbles”. But they were all very proud of their end result and that’s what really matters.

I love seeing the different styles and abilities of each my kids! This was a great opportunity to connect their love of reading with their love of creating!

What other creations can you think of to go along with this beautiful book?

Ocean Animal Canvas art projects for mixed age groups based on the illustrations in Ocean Themed Storybooks

Here are some other ocean activities that you might enjoy:

Ocean I Spy Jar

Underwater I Spy Jar with a fun dolphin bottle

More Ocean Themed Arts and Crafts for Kids

Under Sea Painting

DIY Mermaid Tiara

Torn Paper Sea Horse

Crazy Sea Monsters

Coral Reef Salt Painting

DIY Sea Turtle Stamps

Under Sea Clay Animals

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