Paper Plate Sharks

I love it when people display their children's artwork around their house.  Lots of people cover the refrigerator with art, while others use their hallway as a gallery.  We have an art wall.  I think displaying children's art in the public part of the house tells the child that his or her artwork is valuable and worthwhile.

I'm frequently inspired by seeing children's art on display.  When we visited friends recently, I liked this shark their 2-year old daughter had made so much that I took a picture so that Trevor and I could make our own.  

Materials: paper plate, black paint, white paint, grey cardstock, white cardstock, googly eyes, scissors, and glue.

The first step was to make grey paint.  I put Trevor in charge of mixing white and black to make the perfect shade.  We actually had grey paint on hand, but he enjoys mixing paints and it is good practice for him to create a specific color from the basics.

We painted the back of our plates gray, let that dry, then added a black mouth.  

We added googly eyes.  Finally, we cut out three cardstock fins and a bunch of triangle teeth and glued them in place.

Here's Trevor's paper plate shark:

 

And here's mine: 

I like mine the least of the three.  It lacks the charm of the children's versions with their irregular teeth and lopsided mouths.  I did have a lot of fun making it though!