A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle & Themed Craft

Here's a super cute little craft to go with Eric Carle's book, A House for Hermit Crab.  I'm a huge fan of doing book-themed activities and crafts, especially if they are based on an Eric Carle book (I posted a themed activity post for Eric Carle's book the Very Busy Spider last week)!  This is such an easy, adorable craft to do after reading the book.

Get out some paper (these kids used brown like the sand, but you could use whatever you have), some red paint, a handful of sand, googly eyes, glue, a paintbrush, and some sea shells.  Do the handprints first and allow them to mostly dry.  Using a paintbrush, have your child paint glue in different areas around the handprints.  If the handprints are a little wet still, the sand may also stick to them, as well (which looks cute, in my opinion).  Then, sprinkle sand all over the glue and handprints.  You can glue a few sea shells on to the picture if you have them.  Glue on your googly eyes and then allow to fully dry.  

If you don't have sand, you can just use some dirt from outside...try to find dry, light brown dirt, as opposed to dark, moist soil.