Preschool Letter Craft: T is for Turtle

What you need for the preschool letter craft:

• A jar cover (I used a baby jar size)
• Green craft paint and brushes
• 2 googly eyes
• 4 medium green wooden beads (or paint any  wood bead green)
• One large round green wooden bead
• Glue (start with school glue so that the children can do it themselves. If it falls off, go ahead and put it back together with industrial strength glue such as E-6000)
• Promotional magnets (the kind the plumber will give you…)
• Scissors
• Optional: extra things to decorate the shells (green paper punches, green sequins…)

If you can find a larger bead for the head, it might come out nicer, though I kind of like the “bulging eyes turtle look”. Use wooden beads only as you need something lightweight (they’re the cheapest, anyway).

How to make a turtle magnet:

1. Paint the outside of the jar cover green. You can also paint the printed side of the magnet if you want.
2. Glue two googly eyes onto the large bead.
3. Glue the five beads into place for head and feet.
4. Cut the promotional magnet so that it overlaps the edges of the jar cap, but not too much. You will see here that if you painted the promotional side, it may be easier for the preschoolers, as they can have more overlap without the advertisement showing. You may also want to cut it in advance for the children, since you’ll need sharp scissors for this.
5. Glue the magnet around the open side of the jar so that it covers it.
6. Allow the glue to dry completely before attempting to use it.

Your preschooler will be so excited to see a craft that he/she made displayed proudly at home. And it looks great, so mom loves it too!