Preschool Education Arts & Crafts : Animals

Also See: Beach & Ocean, Summer

Fish added 6-24-98 Original Author Unknown

Need: Colored Construction paper, Glue, water, plastic cup, Paint Brush, Tissue paper, and Scissors.

Directions: Give each child a precut fish from construction paper. Let them choose the color they want. Then mix a little glue and a little water in a cup. Give each child a paint brush. Then they can use this mixture to stick on tissue paper squares.

Directions: Draw a starfish on blue paper. Apply glue to the inside of the starfish shape, and then sprinkle on cornmeal. Let dry and remove the excess meal.

Directions: Provide each child with a piece of paper with the shape of a fish drawn on it. Have the children tear small pieces of paper, to be glued on the fish to represent scales. It will be easier for the children to tear all the paper first. With a
paint brush, paint the glue onto the fish shape. The children can then place the "scales" on the fish. Facial features can be added when the scales are dry.

Directions: Paint a paper plate red. Attach long red streamers to the bottom. Hang from the ceiling in the classroom.

Directions: Cut a bunch of starts out of sandpaper. Lots of different sizes and different grades of sandpaper. Give each child a plain sheet of construction paper and crayons. Tape the stars around the tables and the kids can walk around and rub on anyone they want.

Directions: Get a variety of colored powder paint and lots of oatmeal. Give each child a small sandwich bag with some oatmeal in it. Let them choose any color powder paint and put about a tablespoon of paint into the bag, close and shake!!! Do this for all the colors you want. When you are ready to do the project give each child an octopus pattern and their choice of colored oatmeal. Spread the glue and put the oatmeal on!

Directions: Blow up a balloon. Cover it with paper strips and glue until it is solid. Cut out mouth at end....paint all silvery blue. Make the scales from some iridescent fabric,
glue these all over the body. Add same for tail and fins. Then attach two fishing line strings from near mouth/tail to a piece of dowel-the Rainbow Fish puppet.

Directions: Have children decorate a paper plate with underwater scene--cut-out paper fish, painted fish on plate, whatever they like. Cover the plate with the blue wrap (like Saran Wrap).

Jellyfish added 4-6-00 Submitted by: Dawn O'Malley

Need: Paper plates, streamers

Directions: Take a paper plate. Cut it in half. Have children glue or tape streamers onto the plate (the Strait Side). Then staple the two halves together.

Submerine's Port Hole added 6-19-00 Original Author Unknown

Need: Two cheap paper plates, Scissors, Glue, Stapler, Crayons/Markers/Paint, Plastic Wrap, Sand/Cornmeal, Pebbles, Yarn, sponge, tissues, fabric, Shells (macaroni or real), Fish (crackers, gummies, etc.)

Directions: Color Center of one plate to look like water. We painted ours a pretty blue.
Glue sand/cornmeal and pebbles to the bottom of the water. Using pieces of yarn, sponge, tissue, etc., create sea plants and animals. Glue in your fish. Cut out center portion of other plate, leaving the rim intact. Glue plastic wrap across cut out portion to form the porthole's glass. Staple the two plates together, rim to rim, with the water scene inside.

Dolphins added 6-26-00 Original Author Unknown

Need: Dolphin pattern, light gray paper, water colors

Directions: Cut a dolphin pattern out of light gray construction paper. And let the
kids water color them. If you have never water colored on construction paper it is neat, because the colors blend into one another!

Need: Flour, salt, water, food coloring, paper, paintbrushes

Directions: Mix equal amounts of flour, salt, and water. Then add food coloring. Cut out a big starfish or a Flounder and add eyes. Have the children paint with the mixture. It will change as it dries.

Directions: Draw a picture of an underwater scene with crayons & paint over it with a thin wash of blue tempera.

Directions: Using crayons, children draw fish on a large piece of newsprint. When they have finished, have children blow watered-down tempera paint onto the paper with straws.

Directions: Paint each palm and finger the same color (excluding the thumbs.) One hand at a time, you place it on the paper, slightly overlapping. when you are done you will have an octopus with all eight legs.

Directions: Cut a paper plate in half. Glue eight streamers on the back for tentacles. The kids can color the plate to match the color of the streamers or use whatever color they want.

Need: Small paper bags, paint, construction paper (black and white), yarn,
newspaper

Directions: Have children stuff bags with newspaper. Tie the end with yarn and create the tail. Paint the bag gray or any other whale colors (black and white, etc.).
Cut eyes out of construction paper & glue onto bag when paint is dry. Cut out spout shapes from white construction paper and glue to the top.

Directions: Have children press their fingers onto a stamp pad & stamp fingers onto
paper. Add features such as fins.

Directions: Take bubble wrap and cut out two fish shapes and glue both pieces together leaving an opening to stuff. Fill the fish with colored tissue paper and then seal the opening. Hang these from the ceiling and you have a room full of beautiful rainbow fish!

Directions: Give each of your children an oval cut out of gray construction paper. Set out felt-tip markers, glue and white construction paper tooth shapes. (Like triangles) Glue the tooth shapes on their ovals where the mouth would be. Add eyes with the markers.

Directions: Have the children draw on a piece of newsprint paper an ocean animal scene with crayons. When finished use a cotton ball with baby oil and cover the
paper with the oil. Allow the picture to dry for several days and the end
result will be a bright transparent ocean scene.

Mural added 5-6-01 Original Author Unknown

Need: Blue paint, Butcher paper, colored construction paper

Directions: Paint butcher paper blue, let the kids tear colored construction paper to be the seaweed and coral and glue it on, then you can glue on your paper plate fish and other art projects or else draw fish directly on. for added effect you could cover with blue or clean cellophane when done.

Colored Sand and Salt Shakers added 5-6-01 Original Author Unknown

Need: Salt shakers, powdered tempera paint, sand, paper, glue, crayons

Directions: Gather several salt shakers and fill each with a mixture of equal parts of
clean sand and powdered tempera paint. Set the salt shakers, along with construction paper and glue, on a table. Allow the kids to use the glue to make ocean animal designs on their papers and then cover them with different salt shaker mixtures.

Finger-painting added 5-6-01 Original Author Unknown

Need: green paint, blue paint, shaving cream, paper, smocks, combs

Directions: Finger-paint with green, blue tinted shaving cream, offering various "combs" to drag through and make ripples. Do this on smooth trays or a table, and take a print when they've finished playing and experimenting. To take a print, just take a piece of paper and place it over the shaving cream creation, press firmly, then list.

Paper Plate Oysters added 5-6-01 Original Author Unknown

Need: paper plates, cotton balls, gray paint, pink paint, glue

Directions: Gather a paper plate and a cotton ball for each child. The kids should fold the plates in half and paint the insides of the "oyster" pink. When the pink is dried they should paint the outside of the plate gray. To complete they can glue the "pearl" (Cotton) into the center of the oyster.

Tissue Paper Fish added 5-6-01 Original Author Unknown

Need: paper plates, tissue paper, scissors and glue

Directions: Pre-mark one paper plate for each child with a pie-shaped wedge (for the tail). Instruct each child to cut along the lines to remove the wedge. Next, staple
the pointed side of the wedge to the opposite end of the plate to form the tail. Give each child several pieces of colored tissue paper and have him tear them into pieces about 1"X1". Have each decorate the fish by gluing the pieces on. You could also use colored cellophane paper. This fish looks like the Rainbow Fish.

Fish in a Box! added 5-6-01 Submitted by: Anonymous Visitor

Need: One empty shoebox per child, string, construction paper (various colors), cling wrap

Directions: Make an underwater scene from construction paper, seaweed, colorful fish (2 or 3) a blue background for the water, starfish, octopus, etc... Glue the blue background to the inside of the shoe box, you will not need the lid to the shoebox. Have the children glue on the pictures of the ocean life, except for the 2 or 3 fish that you cut out or colored. After decorating the background, tape a piece a string or yarn to the back of each of the fish and then tape the other end of the string to the upper, inside of the shoebox. The fish are swimming 3-D in the box now. Cover the outside of the box with cling wrap and you have an underwater scene with tropical fish!

Paper Bag Fish added 7-8-01 Submitted by: Anonymous Visitor

Need: Paper bag, stapler, rubber band, scrap paper, and paint

Directions: Lay a plain paper bag down flat. Leave the bottom folded up and fold in
the corners of the bottom of the bag and staple in place to form the fishes snout. Loosely stuff the sack with scrap paper and close the end with a rubber band. Slide it up a couple of inches and spread out the end to make the tail. Let the children paint their fish any way they want.

Sea Urchins added 7-8-01 Original Author Unknown

Need: clay, toothpicks, paper plate

Directions: Use hardening clay and toothpicks. Dye the toothpicks purple or a dark
blue. Also color the dough. Break the toothpicks in half and stick the
broken ends into the clay. Cover the top and sides with toothpicks. Leave on
a plate to dry.

Bubble Wrap Jelly Fish added 7-8-01 Original Author Unknown

Need: Blue or white bubble wrap, crepe paper

Directions: Have the children cut a circle of bubble wrap. Then glue cut pieces of crepe paper. They look cute hanging from the ceiling.

Fish Tank added 7-8-01 Original Author Unknown

Take a card board box open on one side and have the children paint the inside blue and then give each child a precut fish (or have them design their own) have the children decorate the fish with glitter, sequins, feathers, whatever is on hand. Then suspend the fish with fishing wire from the fish tank. It will look like the fish are swimming. Allow the children to add things to the tank like rocks, plants etc.

Octopus added 7-21-01 Original Author Unknown

Need: 1 brown paper lunch sack per child, labeled, 1 rubber bands per child, white paper reinforcements, marker, newspaper, scissors

Directions: Have the child scrunch up a piece of newspaper and place it inside the paper bag. Tightly wrap the rubber band around the bag at the base of the newspaper. Cut up the bag to make eight strips for octopus tentacles. Use a marker to draw octopus's eyes and mouth on head. Stick reinforcements on the tentacles.

Egg Carton Octopus added 7-21-01 Original Author Unknown

Need: Egg Carton, paint, yarn, and paper

Directions: Glue together two cup sections from the bottom of a cardboard egg
carton, and let them dry. Cover them with black paint. Attach eight yarn
tentacles with glue to the bottom. Cut eyes and a mouth from paper, and glue
them in place.

Crabs added 4-5-02 Original Author Unknown

Need: Paper plates, sand, egg cartons, glue, paper

Directions: Cover the entire paper plate with glue. Then sprinkle sand generously over the plate. Fold the plate in half. Take a cardboard egg carton and cut two sections from it. Glue it to the paper plate for eyes. Add paper legs.
Alternative: Make red sand to give the crab a little color. See the recipe here.

Mermaids added 4-21-02 Original Author Unknown

Need: paper, paint, paint brush, collage material, and glue

Directions: pre-cut a mermaids tail. Have the children us collage materials to decorate the tail. Paste the tail onto a piece of paper .The body, head, arms, etc... can be painted/drawn on the paper, after the tail dries. The boys loved adding a trident to their King Neptune.

Octopus added 5-12-02 Original Author Unknown

Need: napkins, tissue paper, yarn, scissors

Directions: Crumble up some paper napkins and put them in the middle of tissue paper. Then gather the sides of the tissue up and tie a piece of yarn around the middle so that the napkin forms the shape of the octopus’ body. Use scissors to cut the fringe into strips to create tentacles. Hang from ceiling.

Jelly Fish Handprints added 5-12-02 Original Author Unknown

Need: napkins, tissue paper, yarn, scissors

Directions: Paint each child's hand with a light pink paint. Press the painted hand onto a piece of paper. Turn the hand the fingers are pointed down. Add eyes to the head of the jelly fish.

Flashy Fish added 5-19-02 Original Author Unknown

Need: colored foil, colored tissue paper, paper, scissors, glue, black sticker, paper clip, hole punch, and string

Directions: Have children glue oval shaped tissue paper and foil pieces onto a white
construction paper fish shape. Attach a black dot sticker to resemble the eye.
Punch a hole near the mouth of the fish. Put a paper clip through the hole in the mouth then attach to the rope. To display, suspend a length of rope from your ceiling, then attach your fish like you would on a stringer.

Toothpaste Aquariums added 5-19-02 Original Author Unknown

Need: Zip-lock bag, blue sparkle toothpaste, gummy fish

Directions: Get a small snack-size zip-lock bag and put blue sparkle toothpaste in it. Then add a couple gummy fish. Close the bag and let them squish!

Need: White Paper, orange/red and black paint, Fine black marker

Directions: To make Crab's body, paint your palm and print onto the paper. Print the crab's legs using the length of your pointer finger. Fingerprint the end of each leg. Print the claws using 2 fingerprints at the ends of the 2 long legs. For eyes, fingerprint 2 black dots. When dry, circle the crab's eyes with marker.

Need: White Paper, light gray and light blue paint, Fine black marker

Directions: To print the dolphin's body, paint your palm and fingers light gray, leaving your thumb clean. Print horizontally in the center of the paper. To form the dolphin's nose and tail, dip your pointer fingertip in light gray paint and print. Form the dolphin's upper and lower fins using the length of your pointer finger dipped in gray paint.

Need: White Paper, red, yellow, orange, and brown, Fine Black MarkerDirections: Print the middle of your starfish in the middle of your paper using your thumb dipped in red paint. To print the starfish's 5 arms, dip your longest finger in red paint and print 5 times. Make a sandy background for your starfish using your pointer finger and yellow, brown, and orange paint. When dry, out line with marker.

Need: White paper, green, brown, and white paint, Fine black marker

Directions: Form the sea horse's head by painting your palm brown and printing close
to the top of the paper. To form the sea horse's body, paint your hand brown, leaving your thumb clean. Overlap the head a little as you print. Print a nose using the length of your pincer finger. To form the tail, dip a pointer fingertip into brown paint and make a curled row of prints. Make a white eye with your pincer fingertip print. Print some green seaweed using pointer fingertip prints. Outline when dry; then add the eye's center, a mouth, and fins with a marker.

Need: White paper, brown, blue , green and white paint, Fine black marker

Directions: To form the lobsters body, paint your palm broom and print. To form the tail, paint the top 2 sections of your pointer finger brown and make several prints side-by-side, extending from the body. Make the fantail, little flippers, and front leg sections using pointer fingertip prints. To print each claw on the 2 front legs, use 2 pointer tip prints. To print the 8 brown legs, use the length of your pointer finger.
To make the antennae, use your pinkie dipped in brown paint and print a line of small dots. Make a pint of white eyes using fingerprints. Add a design at the bottom of the paper using green and blue paint. When dry, outline and add pupils, flippers, little hairs to the fantail, and little claws on the legs.

Need: Tagboard, wax paper, paint. glue, scissors, googly eyes.

Directions: Cut out a jellyfish shape (a U shape), out of both tagboard and waxed paper. Cut the waxed paper so that it fits the top of the tagboard shape, and extends several inches below. The child paints the tagboard blue. After the paint dries, the child then glues the waxed paper to the tagboard shape. Cut the bottom part of the waxed paper into strips so that it resembles tentacles. Attach googly eyes, and the jellyfish is complete.

Need: Coffee filter, crayons or watercolor markers, staples, streamers, string

Directions: Take a coffee filter and color with crayons or watercolor markers. Glue or staple long streamers around the edges of coffee filter Ta-Dah! You now have a beautiful jellyfish to hang from "fishing string" from your ceiling!

Need: red paint, corn syrup, paper, paint brush

Directions: Copy or cut a crab pattern for each child. Have the children pain their crab with a miniature of red paint and corn syrup (Enough to make it shinny when dry.) This project can be a little sticky, but worth the fun.

Toothy Sharks added 5-24-04 Original Author: A site visitor

Need: sheets of Styrofoam (White construction paper works too), Bright blue tempra paint, Masking tape, Paper

Directions: Have the kids make bright blue sharks. Ahead of time with a sharp knife cut the Styrofoam in to shark shapes (one for each child). Note: Do this outside because it is messy. Make a teeth stencils with the masking tape by cutting it into triangles. Make a tab on each stencil by sticking the base of each tooth onto the edge of a paper. The tabs should be less than a 1/4 of an inch wide. Cut off the extra paper.

Give the kids the sharks and the teeth stencils. When they have positioned the teeth how they like them then have them paint over everything. After no more white can be seen help them lift up the tabs and pull off the stencils. I think small pointy teeth look better than lager ones. Have fun.