Print out our free whale template and use it to create an easy whale craft for kids. We painted our whales using a fun technique with cotton swabs, but you could also color them with markers, crayons or colored pencils. There’s all kinds of room for creativity!

Follow our Ocean Crafts for Kids Pinterest board for even more ideas!

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We love making ocean and sea life crafts, so we couldn’t wait to get a whale craft added to our collection. Its’ a very easy craft with a free template (similar to our starfish craft) which allows you to use it in any way you’d like.

I’ll share how we made our whales with paint and cotton swabs in the directions below. Be sure to check out the section on tips and other ideas on ways to use the whale template at the end of the post.

See it in action here!

Easy Whale Craft for Kids

Materials for Whale Craft

• Paint in various colors (We used our favorite tempera paint which has bold colors.)
• White cardstock or art paper
• Paintbrush
• Cotton swabs
• Paper plate or tray to hold your paint
• Scissors
• Black Sharpie
• Optional: Googly eyes
• Free Whale Template

Directions for Whale Craft for Kids

1. Print out the free whale template onto white cardstock or art paper.

2. Paint a thin layer of light blue or gray tempera paint over each whale. (A thin layer will dry much more quickly.) Don’t worry about going out of the lines. Just be sure you can still see them. Invite kids to make their own shades of blue and gray. They love mixing and creating their own colors!

3. Use a cotton swab to dab various colors of painted dots onto your whale.

4. Allow your paint to dry.

5. Cut out the whale.

6. Use a black marker to draw a mouth on your whale.

7. Glue a googly eye to your whale. (You can also just draw an eye with your marker.)

Tips and Other Ideas

• Glue a popsicle stick to your whale to make it a puppet.
• Print your whale template out onto light blue or gray cardstock to make the craft even easier.
• For a science twist, invite students to illustrate use the whale shapes to resemble the various types of whales.
• Invite kids to create an ocean scene and glue their completed whales on it.