Looking for a fun Shark Week craft, ocean animal activity, or reading-themed paper craft? This Shark Corner Bookmark is an easy project for kids that combines creativity, fine motor skills, and a love of books. Perfect for classrooms, homeschool lessons, libraries, and summer learning.

Contents show

What You’ll Learn

In this tutorial you’ll learn:

How to make a shark corner bookmark
How to fold a basic origami corner bookmark
How to use the free printable template
Ways to use shark bookmarks for Shark Week activities
Reading activities to pair with the craft

When you mention sharks to someone, they’re most likely to immediately think of danger, particularly due to shark teeth. After all, the movie was called ‘Jaws‘, not ‘Fins’!

Yes, shark teeth are dangerous, but did you know that despite everything, they’re still not as strong as human teeth?

Fun Shark Facts for Kids

It’s true – your teeth are stronger than a shark’s! Our teeth have roots, which is why they take a while to come in completely, while sharks are born with complete sets of teeth. ‘Sets’ because sharks have multiple rows of teeth, one behind the other.
Sharks have existed for more than 400 million years.
Sharks don’t have bones.
There are over 500 species of sharks.
Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world.
Most sharks are not dangerous to humans.
Ancient people used shark teeth as weapons, but we’ve found another use for them – holding pages in your book!

We’re talking about paper sharks of course, and you’ll find one in today’s shark corner bookmark papercraft!

Shark Corner Bookmark Papercraft for Kids

Supplies required:

Colored craft papers
Scissors
Craft glue
Pencil
Sharpies

How to make the Shark Corner Bookmark Papercraft:

1. Download and print the Shark Corner Bookmark Papercraft Template. The template includes parts of the shark, such as the fins, teeth, eyes, mouth and a square that we’ll turn into the bookmark base.

2. Trace the parts of the template on craft paper of the appropriate colors and cut them out. You can choose shades of grey or blue for the fins and bookmark base, and go with white for the eyes and teeth. Keep the mouth pink or red.

3. Let’s start our shark corner bookmark by making the bookmark base first. Take the square paper and fold it in half diagonally. You now have a triangle.

4. Hold the top corner of the top layer and fold it all the way down to meet the base of the triangle.

5. Fold the right corner up to join the top corner. You now have a little triangular flap.

6. Fold the right flap in half and tuck the top corner inside the little pocket at the bottom.

7. Flatten all the folds neatly.

8. Repeat Steps 5-7 with the left side. The base of your shark corner bookmark is ready.

9. Time to assemble the scariest part of the shark – the mouth! Stick the pink inner mouth cutout on the larger white cutout as shown below. Turn the bookmark base over so that the open part faces down.

10. Stick the complete mouth pattern on the inside of the bookmark’s open end, so that the curved edge of the mouth is in the same direction of the open corner.

11. Use scissors to cut the bookmark base along the edge of the mouth pattern, rounding it out neatly.

12. Here’s the fun part – adding teeth to our shark corner bookmark! Glue the teeth cutouts along the top edge of the open end of the bookmark.

13. Glue the eye cutouts on the shark’s head, above the teeth.

14. Attach the side fins and the top fin to the origami bookmark with glue.

To use the shark corner bookmark, slide the corner of the page into the shark’s mouth, so that it sits snugly inside. Yes, it does look like the shark is biting onto the page and won’t let go!

Kids will absolutely love how this shark corner bookmark turns out, especially when it’s biting on for dear life!

They’ll also enjoy learning about shark teeth and how different they are. For instance, whenever a shark loses a tooth from the front row, a tooth from the back row comes forward, and is soon replaced by a new one! Fascinating!