Today I’m sharing a super cute seahorse puppet paper roll craft. This makes a great Summer or Ocean-themed DIY toy and will inspire hours of imaginative play long after the fun of making them is over.

This easy ocean craft idea was first published in 2017 and has been updated and reshared for today’s audience.

You might also like these ocean craft ideas

Seahorses hold a magical allure for kids and adults alike. They are often portrayed as friends of mermaids in children’s stories which is partly why they make great puppets. Kids can use their imaginations along with their handmade puppets to make up stories of their own.

But, as the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction. In real life, seahorses are an incredibly unique species and making this craft is a fun opportunity to give kids a greater appreciation of these tiny animals.

Here are some real-life seahorse facts to pique your kids’ interest before we get started on the seahorse puppet craft:

Fascinating seahorse facts:

• Seahorses are masters of disguise and are able to camouflage themselves to blend in with almost any background.
• The seahorse has a snout like a vacuum cleaner which it uses to suck up it’s food (plankton and tiny fish).
• When a seahorse finds a partner they stick with them for life. Every morning before dawn they engage in a ‘courtship dance’ together, which can last for hours.
• Seahorses have a reverse pregnancy! The male seahorse will be the one to have babies after the female deposits her eggs into his pouch.
• A male seahorse can have up to 2000 babies at one time, but the babies are on their own at birth and statistically only 2 of the 2000 will make it through to adulthood. Each adult seahorse truly is a miracle. 
• Sadly, many of the 32 known seahorse species are under threat, mostly from humans. The medicine trade, the pet trade and deep-sea trawling are all major factors threatening their existence

Now, let’s get started on the seahorse puppets!

How to make seahorse puppets

To make our seahorse puppets, we’ve used paper rolls with a cut-and-fold technique.

Crafty TIP: If you have leftover paint from a craft project, don’t waste it by throwing it out. Instead, use it up by painting empty paper towel rolls from the recycling basket to incorporate into future projects. It saves on drying time when you want to make something with them and they always come in handy—which is why we’ve started with pre-painted paper rolls in this tutorial. 

You will need:

• a painted paper towel roll (one per seahorse)
• a wooden dowel rod or a long, straight stick
• googly eyes — or you can use our free printable paper googly eyes for a more eco-friendly seahorse
• paint (I’ve used acrylic guache)
• tacky craft glue
• a hot glue gun
• a craft knife
• seahorse template

How to:

We started with pre-painted paper rolls. If yours are plain, you will need to paint them and allow them time to dry before beginning the craft.

Flatten your paper roll. 

Print and cut out the template and trace it onto your roll. The straight edges need to be lined up against the folds.

Cut out the shapes you have traced, there will be a head, body and fin.

Cut a small slit in the back just above the tail to slot the fin in. Unfold the fin piece and cut one half of it so it is small enough to fit into the slot, and then slot it in and glue into place with tacky craft glue.

Glue the head on at an angle with tacky craft glue. Stick on a googly eye.

Decorate by painting simple lines and dots on your seahorse.

Use a hot glue gun to attach the dowel rod to the inside of the seahorse.

Now you’re ready to play! If you want to go crazy, you could even design a cereal box puppet theatre, decorated to look like an aquarium, for your seahorse puppets to live in.

These guys are off to visit their good friends the mermaids!

More fun paper roll animals you can make:

• Here are over 30 fun puppet crafts for kids
• Create a simple paper roll swan
• These paper roll fish are SO fun and easy
• Make a cute paper roll grasshopper
• These frilled neck lizards turned out so well
• Here are over 40 more paper roll crafts kids will love