Back to School Craft – School of Fish !
While brainstorming for back to school activities to do I was focusing on “school” and this came to mind. I grabbed the paint and rolling pin and my son came running. I am not sure my son knows that a rolling pin is a kitchen utensil but I do know he loves painting with it. This is a long project we did it slowly over the whole day. It would be great for a group or classroom too!
- Before you begin, gather your materials. You will need a large piece of white paper, a few pieces of any other color construction paper, a marker, some bubble wrap, a rolling pin, paint ( blue and any other colors you want), glitter paint, glue, scissors, tape, a bowl, spoon, and googly eyes.
- To get started, mix your blue paint with the glitter. We used glitter glue but plain glitter will work as well.
- Finger paint it on the large piece of white paper. I showed my son how to make long finger “waves” to make it look like the ocean and we did that for a long time.
- While they finger paint, draw a bunch of fish on the other construction paper. I drew the fish because I wanted my son to know what he was painting but with older children I would have skipped drawing them and focus on getting cool prints and cut out the fish free hand once they were dry. For a toddler though a concrete obvious drawing of what we are making is important.
- Next, wrap the bubble wrap around the rolling pin bubbles out.
- Pour some paint on a large plate or mat . We used multiple colors of paint.
- Roll your wrapped rolling pin in it.
- Roll it on the paper with the fish.
- Keep going until your whole “school” is painted. Let dry.
- When the fish are dry cut out.
- Glue onto the ocean
- Finally, add googly eyes and let dry.
School of Fish
Game
All in all, I love this activity! In fact, I think I have made one of these fishing games for every class I have ever taught. My son loves it and it was a huge part of him learning his letters, all while playing!
Jennifer says
I LOVE this!! I think we're going to do this project this weekend!! You rock!
~ Jennifer
Penny Pinching Parent says
Wow, this is great! I like the fact that it's one you can work on off and on during a day or over a couple of days. This would be perfect for a rainy day when we have to be insde all day!
LBDsMama says
I love the idea of the rolling pin and bubble wrap!
Lynn says
I love this project! I am going to do it with my little boy this week. thanks for the idea.
dogwoodcreations says
This was great. We did this over the weekend. thanks!
Nadia says
LOVE this! I'm going to try it out with my daughter tomorrow.
Desiree says
We had fun doing this project, thanks for the idea.
Trisha says
Hi,
I was getting the supplies ready to do this when my son said he wanted to do a dinosaur craft. So we painted dinosaurs with the bubble wrap with a two-color blend instead. It came out great, thanks for the idea!
Patty P says
I love the rolling pin wrapped in bubble wrap! I can't believe I've never seen this before. My Kinders will LOVE this!
Thanks
Jenna says
I just tried this with my son today. He wasn’t into painting the water (he’s not much for getting gooey stuff on his hands), but he LOVED using the rolling pin to paint the fish! I have a child-sized rolling pin and it was perfect. Thanks for such a great idea!
admin says
I am so happy he found part of the craft he liked. It’s so common for kids not to want to get gooey- we assume they will love all messy things but it’s just not true!
mill st. Childcare says
I love the idea of wrapping the rolling pin with bubble wrap so I’m going to give each of the children in my childcare program their own mini rollers wrapped in bubble wrap and try layering paint colors to make their fish “rainbow fish”. would be a great craft after reading rainbow fish :0)
Colleen says
This is amazing! I love it- and it’s exactly what I was looking for- going to use it in conjunction with reading Swimmy for a back to school activity and collaborative bulletin board!