Foam Ocean Animal Pencil Toppers

School’s back in session and these little ocean creatures are the perfect craft to celebrate it! (Yes, I said celebrate. You can tell I used to be a teacher). These little guys are made from fun foam, elmer’s glue, and wiggle eyes. All you and your kiddos need is tracing, cutting, and gluing skills, which makes these pencil toppers a craft fit for even the kindergarteners.

I wish I could take credit for the cute sea creature templates I used to make these, but I can’t. Activity Village deserves the praise. I found their free printable templates awhile ago and thought they were adorable, but I was looking for the right project to use them. The templates come in a number of sizes – I used the smallest dolphin and fish templates, but the second smallest turtle and seahorse. You’re welcome to use any size you want and size your toppers up and down accordingly. They also offer several templates that I didn’t use, including a seal and a shark!

Your process is really easy. Start by cutting out a template and choosing some fun foam for a base.

Next you’ll trace around your template and cut out the fun foam. The last thing you’ll do with the scissors is fold the base over and cut two small slits in the center of your base. This is to stick the pencil through.

Sorry for the blurry photo, but you get the idea. Now you’ll glue on a wiggle eye, and let the kiddos go crazy with the decorating. I stuck with chopped up bits of fun foam, but you could use glitter or sharpies or sequins or buttons or just about anything!