Make Your Own Paper Roll Zeek
Turn an empty toilet paper roll into your very own Zeek the Octopus! All you need is a little paint, a pair of scissors, and Zeek's big, sparkly eyes. Print ours or draw your own. It's an easy recycled craft for home, the classroom, or a library program.
What you'll need
- An empty toilet paper roll (or half of a paper towel roll)
- Green paint (washable tempera or acrylic) and a paintbrush
- Scissors and a pencil
- A glue stick or white school glue
- Zeek's eyes: print them from our free eye sheet, or draw your own with white paper and a black marker (googly eyes work too!)
How to make Zeek
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Paint the outside green
Paint just the outside of the roll and leave the inside plain. When the tentacles curl up later, the brown inside peeks out and gives them a fun two-tone look. Add a second coat for a brighter green, then let it dry completely.
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Mark the tentacles
With a pencil, draw a line around the roll about 1½" (4 cm) up from the bottom. That's how long the tentacles will be, so stop cutting there.
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Cut 8 tentacles
Cut straight up from the bottom edge to your line, all the way around, to make 8 strips. Easy trick: gently squash the roll flat, snip up each folded edge, then make 3 evenly spaced snips through both layers. That's 8 tentacles in 5 snips! Pop the roll back into a round shape when you're done.
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Curl the tentacles
Bend each tentacle out to the side, then roll the tip up around a pencil and slide the pencil out. Curl some more than others. A wiggly octopus is a happy octopus!
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Make Zeek's big eyes
Printable eyes: cut out a pair from the free eye sheet along the black outlines. There are 24 pairs on one page, enough for a whole class.
Draw your own: cut two tall ovals from white paper, a little over 1" (3 cm) tall. Trace around each edge with black marker, then color a big black oval inside, leaving a white spot at the bottom and two little white dots near the top for sparkles. You can also add the dots afterward with a white gel pen. Short on time? Googly eyes work too.
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Give Zeek his face
Glue the eyes side by side, just above where the tentacles start. Let the glue dry, then say hi to your new friend!
Bonus: make Zeek an ocean home
Lay a sheet of paper over something bumpy, like a textured placemat or a leaf, and rub the side of a peeled crayon across it: green for seaweed, blue for water. Cut circles from a brown paper bag or construction paper for rocks, outline them in black marker and glue them down, then draw a few wavy lines in the water. Now Zeek has somewhere to swim!
More free crafts & coloring pages
Printable buttons and coloring pages for Skoshie, Zeek, Wisp and friends, free for classrooms and families.