Fishy Ocean Craft

This craft was inspired by this craft from "My Picture Art Class" by Nellie Shepherd
(the same book where we found the Funky Fish Hat).  Getting craft books from the library has been a fun was to decide in crafts while encouraging reading.  Chiquita likes to look at all the projects, but isn't concerned with the results looking like those in the book, thankfully.

Supplies:

• Tissue paper
• Cardboard
• School glue
• Glitter
• Fish cut-outs
• Crayons
• Any other craft supplies you want

With all the supplies out, I and handed her the fish cut outs and just let her decorate them however she wanted, trying to keep direction to a minimum (confession: the orange and silver fish is mine).  I cut down a few of the fish into other creatures for variety: the sea star, shell and jelly fish.  Finally I had to tell Chiquita no more fish because our cardboard wasn't large enough for more creatures!

Originally I planned to paint the cardboard blue like suggested in the book, but when it came time I didn't want to pull out the paint and deal with the additional clean-up involved with painting.  So I separated out all the blue tissue paper and poured lots of glue on the cardboard.  We spread out the strips of tissue paper until the whole circle was covered.  Chiquita decided on the placement of all the sea creatures while I wielded the glue. 

I really like the result!  I'm hoping to display this a little more permanently - maybe in Chato's room or the bathroom.