Last week I was in charge of craft for play group, which can be quite the challenge as our playgroup covers a wide age range of kids and I always want to come up with something besides just a coloring activity! I also wanted to do something with a summer theme in hopes of bringing some more summery weather. When I think of summer I think of the beach and ocean and of course fish! And that’s how I came up with the shape aquarium idea!
My original intention was to cut out the fish shapes myself and just let the kids glue them on, but I realized two things. First, it takes a lot of work to cut out individual fish. Second, if I cut out shapes instead (much easier to prepare!) then the craft can also be used to talk about and learn about the shapes, so that’s what I went with!
Shape Aquarium
All you need is:
- blue paper for the aquarium
- circles for the fish bodies- any color
- triangles for the tails- any color (you can also use them to make fins!)
- green rectangles for the seaweed
- dried beans for the rocks
- glue
I created an example one ahead of time so the kids could see what the fish look like, but really it’s up to them how they want to make it! We also had markers out to decorate the fish, and my son really wanted me to draw faces on his so I helped him with that. The kids enjoyed mixing and matching the colors to make their fish.
This was an easy craft to prepare and the kids had fun doing it as well! For older kids you could even have them cut the shapes out themselves.
What other shapes would you include in your shape aquarium?