Surf's Up on a New School Year!

Surf’s up!  Let your kids surf into the summer or new school year with this fun craft activity.

Materials: fine grain sandpaper, 150 grit works well.
light blue and light brown paper, two 9X12 pieces for each student.
glue, crayons, scissors, and surfer boy and girl patterns. The free download (click on the picture) has all the patterns you need for this craft activity.

You'll need sandpaper for the surfboards.  Let the kids trace the surfboard pattern onto the sandpaper and cut them out.  Then have them color the designs on the sandy side of the sandpaper.  Simple designs work best.  It's also important that they color very darkly.  Have them press firmly as they color so the surfboard is completely covered with the wax from the crayon.  You'll be using an iron to transfer the crayon wax to the final picture, so you need a heavy layer of crayon on the sandpaper surfboard.

For the background you can use blue and beige paper, blue for the ocean and beige for the beach.  I had the students cut a wavy line off the edge of the beige paper and glue the pieces together to make one tall background.

Students can decide if they want the surfboard standing with them on the beach, or in the ocean with their character riding the waves. In the free download you'll find the patterns for the surfboards, the girl and boy figure, plus a few accessories.  The kids can draw and color in anything else they want in their beach scene. 

Hope your kids enjoy this activity to surf into the summer or sail into a new school year!