This is such a fun craft. My daughter and I each grabbed some toilet paper rolls and originally I thought we’d turn them into butterflies since my daughter adores butterflies but when I cut one as an experiment we both said “It looks like a fish!” then grabbed the paints. I like to try to make crafts like this fish craft as exploratory as possible. Yes, there are way more boundaries with them than open-ended art and but you can adjust that in many ways. I added the glitter to add texture to the fish but also to add some more mixing and hands-on creation for my daughter.
Gather your materials. You will need some toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls cut in half, paint, glitter, dishes for the paint, paint brushes, scissors, glue and googly eyes… you may want more than one per fish if your kids are like mine!
Start by putting the paint into containers and adding glitter. I try to give my daughter as much choice as possible so she chose the paint colors and glitter colors too. She added a lot and I was struck speechless when she didn’t choose pink immediately.
Mix them up if you add as much glitter as my daughter did you might need to add a little more paint after to make sure it will still spread.
Paint the tubes. I used a plastic lid as a plate for painting and drying.
I loved the colors she chose and how they blended. Let dry.
When dry push in the sides of one end of the tube to make a point.
Squish the whole tube down.
Make two diagonal cuts at the end of the tube and then in the middle.
Time for glue and googly eyes.
Let dry.
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Mrs P says
Cute Fish
Jennifer says
I’m learning about all of these Eric Carle books I never knew existed. I would love to incorporate this craft into one of my mini-units for my kids — thanks for sharing!
Ashton Joinery says
😀 I cant believe what I am seeing they look great and I will never throw another toilet roll away ever again! I am Inspired 🙂