Kid's Crafts Thursday - Paper Plate Fish Tanks

I got the idea for this craft from 'The Little Hands Big Fun Craft Book' by Judy Press available on Amazon here. However, I did make some modifications to the craft shown in the book. Here is what you will need:-2 Paper Plates

-Construction Paper - blue, and whatever other colors you may want for decorating

-Kids Safety Scissors

-Glue

-Tape

-Plastic Wrap

-Aluminum Foil

-Clear Fishing Line

-Markers

Pre-Project Prep:

For younger children, I would recommend doing the following in advance. Older children may be able to do some or all of these things on their own.

-Cut out the center of one of the paper plates

-Trace the cut-out circle onto a piece of blue construction paper

-Draw some fish shapes onto the piece of the plate that you cut out

-Draw any other items that you want to have included in your fish tank on the other colors of construction paper. Here is what you should have...and I never claimed to be an artist. What we are including in our fish tank are seaweed and coral. ;-)

Now...Round up the kids, its time to start! Don't forget newspaper and smocks if you want to avoid a huge mess!

1. Have the child cut out the blue circle and glue it onto the center of the plate that has not been cut.

2. Have the child cut out the seaweed/coral/whatever other decorations you decided to put in your tank and glue them onto the blue background.

3. Have the child cut out the fish and glue aluminum foil on them for scales.

4. Have the child color the fish with the markers.
5. Cut a piece of fishing line and tape it to the back of the fish. Tape the other end of the fishing line onto the edge of the paper plate. Repeat this step for each fish. Note: The original craft has the children glue the fish to the blue background. But, I thought this would make it look more like the fish were 'swimming'.

6. Tape plastic wrap to the back of the paper plate with the cut-out in it. 7. Tape or glue the 2 plates together.

Voila! You have a Paper Plate Fish Tank! Here are our finished products:

Project Review: Ryleigh (age 4.5) really enjoyed this project. She was able to do all the cutting/gluing by herself. Isaac (age 2.5) needed a lot of help and really wasn't that interested in this project. It was a little involved for him.