Fishy friends
It’s easy to take for granted simple craft ideas made with everyday objects, and forget that they are often absolute winners with kids.
When one of our lovely Playlinks parents mentioned recently that her child had become very attached to the paper plate fish we’d made together some weeks before I was delighted. It reminded me what a clever little craft activity this is, and that prompted me to share its very simple instructions here.
Welcome to the Paper Plate Fish… it’s what I call “an oldy but a goody”.
I’m all about simple ideas when it comes to kids’ crafting, and this cute (but deceptively clever) fish is one of the very simplest of all. I’m a big fan of craft projects that create a blank canvas for kids to decorate, and especially drawn to those that might spark some creative and imaginary play once they’re completed.
To make this fabulous fishy friend you will need:
a paper plate
a pair of scissors
sticky tape
Use a paper plate as a base, or if you don’t have one handy cut a circle from any piece of cardboard.
Using just a few snips of your scissors cut a wedge from the edge of the rim.
Move that wedge to the opposite side and then tape it onto the back of the of the plate, making sure it pokes beyond the edge. Magically you’ve made both a mouth and a tail, and in doing so transformed a simple circle into a smiling fish.
These little chaps can then be decorated in whatever medium your child enjoys. They might like to:
draw onto the surface in markers, pastels or crayons
use paint or food dye to colour
add collage, decorate with paper and a glue stick, or even stickers
attach streamers or ribbons, fins or a trailing tail
tape them to a stick to make puppets
add a string and the fish becomes a kite
attach with string to a long garden stick to make a rod and line
Make one fishy friend, or a whole school. You definitely won’t need to go ‘fishing for compliments’ with this one… everyone will love them!
Get creative with your kids whenever and wherever you can - keep things simple and have fun.
