Welcome back for another art + picture books craft project!
This month, I’ve been sharing picture books and art projects about the ocean.
Like many people, I find the ocean fascinating. I love reading about the countless plants and animals that live in the ocean. (With that said, though, one of my life-long goals is to avoid traveling on a submarine.)
To me, traveling underwater in a metal tube sounds like a ridiculously bad idea. I don’t expect that feeling to change any time soon. That’s probably just as well because I probably won’t have the chance to ride in a submarine any time soon!
Instead of traveling under the ocean, I prefer to read about sea creatures or to draw them while safely ashore. Today’s project focuses on one of those creatures—the angler fish!
Want to read a book or two about marine animals while you’re working?
I recommend Secrets of the Sea by Kate Baker and Yuval Zommer’s The Big Book of the Blue. These both amazing collections of facts and information about ocean life. They’re meant for older kids and independent readers, but we’ve enjoyed reading them aloud too.
You can find more of our favorite books in my blog post about ocean picture books.
Instructions for a paper-plate angler fish:
Read? Let’s get started!
Supplies:
- paper plates
- finger paints
- scissors
- googly eyes (optional)
- yellow pipe cleaners
- brads
Start by drawing a zigzag line across the center of the plate. It should look like a row of teeth.
With the scissors, follow the zigzag line and cut the plates in half. This creates an upper jaw and a lower jaw.
Pick a main color for the fish. Add a dollop of finger paint on each half of the paper plate. We used brown for one fish and yellow for the other. Then we added black to the upper half and white to the lower half to darken and lighten the colors.
Feel free to use whatever colors or combinations you want!
Spread the paint around the halves, making sure to fill in all the corners. You can add a speckled, fishy texture using white paint. Dab the white paint around with a cotton ball. If you work lightly, it will leave a fun texture on the fish.
When you are satisfied with the colors, let the paint dry.
Once everything is dry, overlap the two halves on one side. Push a brad through the two layers and fasten it.
Turn the fish over. Fold the bottom edge of the lower jaw over 2-3″ to create a flat jawline.
Turn the fish back to the paint side. Add a googly eye to the fish’s upper jaw.
Finally, punch a hole in the plate just above the fish’s eye. Thread a pipe cleaner through the hole. Fold about a couple inches of pipe cleaner up. Twist it around the longer section to hold the paper cleaner in place. You’ve created the angler fish’s fishing lure!
If you want, you can shape the pipe cleaner into a curve—or you can just leave it long.
And the angler fish is finished!
Practice swimming your new friend. As you do, talk about what you know about angler fish.
How does their lure help them find food at the bottom of the sea? How do these animals cope with the immense water pressure?
What do you think?
__________
P.S. If you like this activity, be sure to check out my science-themed coloring & activity book, Shrimp, Shrimp, Cuttlefish!
This book focuses on more than 30 ocean animals with coloring pages and activities like the one in this post. You can find a sample coloring page from the book here.
Shrimp, Shrimp, Cuttlefish is available on Amazon, or you can buy it here.
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