Print out this free starfish template and invite your child or student to create a beautiful starfish craft. Children can use various art materials and art techniques to create all kinds of colorful sea stars!

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Looking for a simple and easy art project for your ocean unit or just to inspire the kids to create? This starfish craft is open ended, allowing for all kinds of different creations! You’ll just need some common art materials, and you’re all ready to get started.

Easy Starfish Craft for Kids

Materials for Starfish Craft

• Starfish Template Outline
• Art paper (This is our favorite art paper! It’s very inexpensive and works well with various art materials.)
• Scissors
• Oil pastels or crayons
• Watercolor paints (You can use watercolor cakes or liquid watercolors.)
• Paintbrush
• Optional: gems or sequins and glue, markers, colored pencils, tempera paint

Directions for Starfish Craft

Below are the directions for making starfish using oil pastels and watercolor paints. At the end of the post you’ll see examples of other ways to make your starfish!

1. Print out the Starfish Template Outline. I cut our art paper down to 8 1/2 x 11 inches so I could print the starfish directly onto the art paper from my printer. You could also print the starfish onto cardstock, cut it out, and use it to trace your starfish onto the art paper.

2. Look at photos of real starfish online or in books for inspiration to decorate your starfish or simply come up with your own designs.

3. Use oil pastels to draw designs onto your starfish.

4. Paint over your oil pastel drawings with watercolors.

5. After the paint has dried, cut out your starfish.

6. Optional: Add some colorful gems or sequins to your starfish with glue.

Other Ways to Decorate Your Starfish

I gave students the option to decorate their starfish with other methods. Some students chose to paint with tempera paint, others chose to draw with markers or pencils. The possibilities are endless!

I love seeing all the different creations the kids come up with as they decorate each sea star, and they all look so nice together hanging up in one big group.

This starfish craft makes a great addition to any ocean unit or sea life unit. You can also simple print out the starfish template as a coloring page- perfect boredom buster for any day!

Looking for more ocean-themed resources? Check out this preschool ocean lesson plan including dice games, patterning cards, word building activities and more!