Something to Sink Your Teeth Into!

Just incase you didn't know, this week is...

on The Discovery Channel!

So to help celebrate, my boys and I thought it would be cool to make some shark hats...

WELLLLLLL...

Here's the real story...

35 minutes before they had to leave for their day camp (we signed them up for 2x a week for August to help get back into a 'school routine!') my older son tells me 'Today is shark day and I need a shark costume.'

WHAT??!!!

I look at the calendar- it only says 'Wear blue day' but the theme for the week is 'Ocean Animals' so I am thinking maybe, just maybe he is right.

I had made him a shark costume (he HAD to be a hammerhead and there were none to be found!) almost 3 Halloweens ago, BUT it was made of fleece and was sure not to fit anymore!

So what is a mom left to do...grab the paper, pencil, scissors and glue!!

I quickly sketched out a set of teeth/mouth on cardstock and had him color as he finished his breakfast

I did the cutting for him because it was literally a scribble to get it done!

He decided he wanted red in the mouth for the blood....

and then we flipped it over and I had him choose either blue, black or gray for the body.

(And as you can see he pulled out his plastic sharks to reference!)

I drew and cut out a pair of bumpy eyes and had him make the 'pupils'

and then quickly cut a shark fin and had him color it.

Then...REPEAT with second child!

I folded the shark head in half so that it looked like a giant open mouth and then folded the eyes/taped them on so that they stood up from the body.

I cut a piece of cardstock into 4 equal 'strips' and attached the shark head to 2 strips (the other 2 were reserved for shark hat #2!)

I measured the strips to fit his head and stapled.

Now to attach the fin...

I snipped a slanted line on the back of the fin

And then slid the headband into the fin and stapled.

It required a staple on both sides- and was quite 'elementary' in design, but it worked!

So now he was ready for 'Shark Day' at school!

Fin and all!

But beware of this shark!!! 

And off they went to school- dressed in their blue, complete with ocean animals and their 'shark costume!'

And when we got there everyone RAVED about their hats...but guess what...it wasn't shark day afterall!!!

They are SURE lucky that I LOVE them!

But...then as I was driving home I realized....

This activity would go GREAT with a favorite book of mine:

and would 'serve' as a perfect 'appetizer' for the 'Cookin' Up A Great Year' blog hop!

My kindergarteners LOVE this book! We read it each year when I do my ocean animals unit and it is always a favorite.  It appears that it is rather hard and pricy to find, but a little investigating and guess what I found...

You can get this book read to you on YouTube!

So even if you don't own it, you can pull this up and share it with your kiddies!

It is also a great book to do for 'Back To School' because it is about Sammy (the shark) and his first day of (shark) school!

You can also use it as a springboard for creating class rules!

If you would like to make the shark hat, I 'sketched' and scanned the templates and you can download them here:

Or you can simply fold a piece of cardstock in half and cut out the teeth in a circular pattern, make a 1/4 circle for the fin and a 'bottomless heart' for the eyes!

If you do decide to use this book, I found a few cute projects, writing ideas and activities based on the book that I pinned to my 'Summer' Pinterest board:

Feel free to pin a few so that you have them handy! 

I also created this pin that brings you back to this post if you ever need the printables, instructions or links!

Simply click on it and you can pin it to whatever board(s) you have!

I hope you got yesterday's appetizer:

I didn't blog about it because I am planning on covering it in the big post on Friday!

It is free for one week only, so be sure to head there now and download so that you aren't left 'starving!'

Be sure to check back tomorrow for your final 'appetizer' before the big feast on Friday:

25 'chef bloggers' have been grabbing ingredients and are ready to serve you a delicious helping of ideas, recipes, samples and more!  We sure hope you come hungry!

Until next post,