DLTK's Educational Activities
Rainbow Fish Craft

This is SUCH a fun craft for young children to do.  There's something about shiny little scales that just cheer my 2 year old daughter right up!  Our rainbow fish has a permanent place of honor on the refrigerator.

Here is a picture of the Rainbow Fish that Cassidy made.

Tip from Val:  To make the Rainbow Fish Crafts look underwater, stick it to a blue sheet of construction paper and glue on top one sheet of slightly crumpled plastic wrap.

Tip from Terrie:  I often teach the 2/3 year olds at Sunday School and last week we did the Jonah story.  To simplify your fish craft I used the template for an outline and traced it onto blue construction paper.  I cut it out so that the outside was still one piece.  We glued the the tissue squares and tinfoil squares onto a plain white piece of paper, and then laid the blue construction paper over top.  We then had a colorful fish in the middle surrounded by blue construction paper "water"! .  The kids loved it, and it was easier for them.

Materials:

• template of the fish (or you can draw your own)
• 1/2 inch or so bits of various colored tissue paper or construction paper (we used tissue paper in the photo above).
• small amount of tinfoil
• thin strips of various colored tissue paper or construction paper
• one big blue piece of tissue or construction paper OR a blue marker or crayon
• glue,
• scissors

Instructions:

• print rainbow fish template (or draw the outline of a fish on a piece of paper)
• color the head in blue, or glue on a piece of tissue or construction paper.  It doesn't have to be perfect as we're going to cut out the fish at the end.
• glue strips of various colored tissue or construction paper on the fins and tail (see photo).
• glue 1/2 inch (ish) squares of tissue paper or construction paper onto the body.
• glue a few strips and 1/2 inch squares of tinfoil over the fish  (or just glue on one square scale to show Rainbow Fish after he shared).
• Cut out along the lines (if you used tissue paper you'll be able to see the lines through it...  If you used construction paper, just estimate where the lines are).  This step will require adult assistance for younger children.
• Cut out the mouth and eye and glue them onto the head.  (you can color them in with markers if you wish.)

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

RAINBOW FISH TEMPLATE

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