Water pollution craft for kids- Easy Earth Day Craft

Are you looking for a fun way to teach kids about pollution? We have an easy water pollution craft with a printable template to add to your pollution lesson plans.

This colorful water pollution craft will definitely catch kids’ attention on the various ways our oceans are polluted and how it affects sea life. Kids can color the beautiful sea life and add a sad face for the fish, crab, and sea horse because of the plastic waste and wastewater around them.

According to the Ocean literacy portal, by 2050, plastic waste will likely outweigh all fish in the sea, and currently plastic waste makes up nearly 80% of marine pollution. It is important to draw the attention of young minds toward this issue and its harmful effect on the ecosystem and biodiversity.

This water pollution craft is a simple pollution project to do with your students in the classroom, preschoolers, and kindergarteners. This is perfect to pair with our happy vs sad paper plate Earth craft as an Earth Day craft project.

Supplies you need to make this water pollution craft

1. Water pollution printable template
2. Blue A4 construction paper for the waves
3. Green A4 cardstock for the background (or you can use any other color)
4. Thin white A4 cardstock
5. Markers/color pencils
6. Scissors
7. Glue
8. Small pieces of plastic bags, plastic lids, etc.
9. Paper knife (optional)

Steps to make a water pollution craft for kids

Step 1

Download the water pollution craft template from our printable library by signing up for our newsletters below.

After you sign up, you will get an email to confirm your subscription and once you confirm, you will get another email with a link and password to access our printable library. Open the printable library and you will be able to find our water pollution printable under the section “Earth Day”.

Print page 1 of the template on blue A4 construction paper, and page 2 of the template on thin white A4 cardstock.

Step 2

Kids can now color in the sea life on white cardstock. They can make beautiful designs on the fish with a black marker and color them in. Also, there is a sea horse, crab, seaweed, and finally, a waste pipe and wastewater to color in.

Step 3

Cut out all the parts from the white cardstock and also, the waves from the blue construction paper. Kids may need help with cutting out the sea life and plants, but they can try to cut out the waves which gives them good scissor practice. (Grown-ups can use a paper knife to cut out the sea animals if needed).

Get all 4 pieces of waves and stick them one by one on the green cardstock starting from the middle.

While gluing, apply a thin line of glue on the straight edge and leave the top wavy part unglued. Each wavy piece should overlap the top one slightly to cover its straight edge.

Step 4

Stick the seaweed on the waves.

Stick the eyes on our fish, sea horse, and crab. Kids can also draw their eyes if they want.

Make a small paper roll out of each rectangular piece of paper and stick them behind the fish, crab, and sea horse. Draw sad faces for them and cut out the mouth of one of the fish. Stick the sea animals with the paper roll behind them on the waves which gives a slight 3d effect for the ocean scene.

Roll the rectangular piece of paper to make the waste water pipe and stick it slightly above the waves. Stick the paper piece with the drawing of wastewater from inside this paper roll. Draw a few small wavy designs at the end of this water flow with a black marker to show the wastewater flowing into the sea.

Step 5

The ocean scene is complete. Now, kids can grab pieces of plastic and stick them on the waves, some behind the seaweeds, some stuck on the sea horse, and some near the baby fish and crab.

Also, stick some near the fish with its mouth open so that it looks like the fish is going to eat it thinking it is food for them. Kids can also grab any other plastic items such as lids, plastic straws, etc., and stick them on the waves.

Our water pollution craft is ready now. This is a great craft that helps kids easily understand how sea life will be affected when the sea is polluted with all human waste.

Teachers can explain how waste, especially plastic waste can get into the sea animals’ bodies and harm them using this simple craft.

You may also like these:

Happy vs Sad Paper plate Earth

Happy vs Sad Earth worksheet activity for kids

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