A House for Hermit Crab Activities

Looking for A House for Hermit Crab Activities? Explore these adorable watercolor puppets and ocean themed movement game inspired by Eric Carle’s book.

A Summer is not complete without some fun in the Ocean! One of our favorite books to read about the ocean is A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle. I love the various sea creatures that it introduces to children. 

Let’s have some fun with these special Ocean Animals from the book!

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A House for Hermit Crab Puppet Movement Activity

Materials Needed

• Water Color
• Paint Brush
• Printables Puppets & Movement Game 
• Popsicle Sticks
• Tape or glue
• Book: A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

Directions for A House for Hermit Crab Puppet Activity 

Print out The Ocean Creatures from 3 Dinsosaurs.   {You’ll find it under Crab Coloring}

Print the Movement Card Game from The Educators’ Spin On It before we begin!

Let’s start with our watercolors. If your child has never painted with watercolors before allowing them to experiment a little bit before you use the printables. One suggestion is to encourage them to create the ocean for all of the ocean animals to swim in.

Discuss the watercolors and also the types of things that would be at the bottom of the ocean. This story has some great illustration to look at for inspiration.

Have your camper paint each of the images on the page as creatively as they want to. For bigger kids, you can print out separate pages for each.  

For younger children, you can just make them all on one page to keep their attention. I love this activity because it works for so many ages!

Then once they are dry you can cut out the images. If you want to attach them to popsicle sticks to create puppets to retell the story.

Directions for A House for Hermit Crab Movement Game 

Let’s get moving!  Using inspiration from our little sea creatures let’s retell the story on a big scale level with our bodies.  Have your child act out the animals as they are drawn from the pile.

Print your own Movement Cards

Print Your Own Beach Inspired Kids Yoga Poses from Kids Yoga Stories Too!

Build Literacy into this Activity

Have your child match the cards to the puppets! You could also introduce beginning letter sounds or word cards too. 3 Dinosaurs has some great printables to go with this idea!

Make it a Science Lesson

Here’s a quick video of a hermit crab changing shells! Take a visit to your local pet shop for an up closer tour too! Or better yet be on the lookout on your beach trip this summer!

Buy Now: A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

Follow Up Activities with A House for Hermit Crab 

3 Dinosaurs has created several Printable Packets for a House for Hermit Crab. They consist of a number of varying packets for specific ages, trust me PRINT NOW! I promise you’ll use it this summer with your kids!

Thank you so much Cassie for making these special Coloring Pages just for the Virtual Book Club for Kids Summer Camp!

For more Ocean Themed Activities try these…

• Ocean in a Tub + 37 more Ocean Inspired Activities for Kids
• Tot School at the Beach
• Ocean Animal Busy Bag
• Shark Themed Activities for Kids
• Writing in the Sand
• Shell Water Color Craft
• Ocean Books for Kids