Who can resist hula hoops from the Dollar Store? I love them! Another thing I love is making up fun games for my kids at an inexpensive price. With four hula hoops I was able to make a fun shark ball game which entertained the entire neighborhood, including kids of all ages. This would make a great activity at a shark-themed birthday party, or just a fun way to spend an afternoon.
Project estimate:
- 4 hula hoops of different sizes, $4
- Ball, on hand or $1
- Clear tape, on hand
- Barbecue skewers, on hand
- Construction paper, on hand
Total: $4.00 and up
This is very easy and has just a few steps to complete. First you need to located the area on the hula hoop where it joins. It is taped so all you’ll need to do is cut the tape and pull at the join to make it come apart. I took the outer ribbon off to make mine look more shark-like. I can honestly say I’ve never seen a shark with stripes.
After the ribbon is removed you’ll need to secure the silver covering with a small piece of tape at the end so it doesn’t come unraveled as well.
I let my kids decorate the shark however they wanted, and they came up with a pretty fun look. The created teeth with a bunch of paper triangles; the eyes were made by tracing bowls and cups onto paper to make circles; the fin was created with two pieces of construction paper and two barbecue skewers to hold it upright. To create a tail, we used two sections of the remaining hula hoop.
Once they had finished decorating and decided where they wanted it placed, I took wooden barbecue skewers and pushed them into the ground. I then placed the end of the hula hoops over the skewers to hold them in place. Repeat for each hoop.
The kids created two games using the shark. For the first game, they kicked a ball through the hoops. They would see who could hit the tail fin in the back.
The other game they invented was a fun obstacle course. They had a blast with this fun, $4.00 craft!
More shark crafts:
Follow Mrs. Greene’s board Shark Week! on Pinterest.
