Thursday, June 11, 2009

Puffy Fish Craft

We're featuring a great craft kit over on ABC & 123 this week, and I love the aquarium Katie's kids made. That's the one I'd have picked also, because I just love an end of the year ocean theme! So in honor of this week's sponsor and because this week's Picnic Table Talk is to share some arts and craft fun, I let ER crack out the paints.

We do all sorts of crafts, and use all kinds of supplies but paints are by far her favorite art medium. She just loves it and that means we do a lot of experience based art, which is fine by me, but I often I like to try and turn it into something recognizable when we're done.

This project started with reading Rainbow Fish, always a good read. We stress the sharing part of the lesson, one my kiddo needs reinforced at every possible point! Then we made our own Rainbow Fish.
I let her pick what color of paper she wanted to use and then she painted with every color in our set all over each sheet. I was going to add sparkles, but for once, she didn't want any. I think it's because she didn't want me messing with her masterpiece. She's very much in the I do it all by myself phase.
After that dried, I cut out two fish shapes. We stacked them up, wrong sides together and then stapled them together. We left a little opening on one side and stuffed our fish with newspaper. Then I stapled Rainbow Fish closed. Voila, a bright and colorful puffy fish!
{Am I a terrible mother for thinking this particular project is oh um...well, not the cutest? I'd have put an eye on it, but little Missy freaked when I tried. I also thought about adding a fin, well the stubborn thing took her fish off the table and took it upstairs to hide it from me! She let me know in no uncertain terms she was done with her fish, and apparently that meant I was too! Is three the I've got an opinion stage? If so, I am not liking it!}I used to make a school of fish like these, punch a hole at the top, and hang them from the ceiling of my classroom. If you stagger the lengths of fishing wire and also hang some pieces of green crepe paper you get a very neat looking water scene. The kids love it.

I'm excited to see all the other great crafty ideas from our other Picnic Table Talk participants, head over to get some inspiration from our wonderful community at ABC & 123: A Learning Cooperative!

16 Friends Said:

***Sharon*** said...

Love the new look to your blog! :)

Kim @ Life of a Modern Mom said...

I think it turned out cute, but would have been super cute with a googly eye, hehe. ;) Girls can be so funny, Molly hates when I glue anything, she always rips it off her project! I love your new header, did you do it yourself? I have to figure out how to put a header on my blog.

Seener Beaner said...

I LOVE the new look!!!! Great colours!!

MaryAnne said...

I love your new header!

I also love this craft activity, looks like something my kids would enjoy making and hanging from their bedroom ceiling :)

Jenny said...

I love the new look for the blog! The header is adorable!

That is a cute little fish project. You always have such creative ideas.

Mama King said...

What a great new header to kick off the summer! So sweet - I love it! I did this fish craft with my Kindergarten kids my first year of teaching. It came out so cute and they loved them. You can add a tin foil scale too!

Preschool Playbook said...

Your new header is beautiful.

Crystal said...

Great idea to stuff the fish-something a little different. I really do think three is the opinion stage. At least that is how it is in our house.

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice said...

LOOKS GOOD!
Cute fish! we did something similar with a stuffed paper dino.

kasandria said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Have a magical day!
Kas

LitLass said...

We did this with a paper bag, and I got my 3-year-old to put on a googly eye--he liked that part better than the painting, I think.

I love your new header!

Anonymous said...

Awesome - I love this project. It has several different techniques, and fairly simple to implement. Thanks for sharing it.

Miller Moments said...

Diggin' the look of your blog! :) And that fish looks like lots of fun!

Diana said...

I like your new header! Such a cute fish. I used to love hanging things from the ceiling in my classroom, too. I can just imagine that cute underwater scene. Rainbow Fish is one of my favorite ocean themed books.

ONe PiNK FiSH said...

Love the vibrant colors and 3D effect of the fish. Also like the cheeriness of the new blog header.

Susana said...

I LOVE the fish!! The colors look so bright and fun too. I also LOVE your header! You did a great job!

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