Paper Plate Jellyfish Craft

When Mia came home from preschool with an orange construction paper jellyfish with colorful tentacles (which I think are strips of nylon windbreaker-type material), I decided we could make some of our own and use them as "Under the Sea" party decorations. Here is my take on a jellyfish craft using paper plates.

Jellyfish by Mia (almost 4!)

Materials:

• paper plate
• scissors
• curling ribbon
• masking tape 
• crayons (or markers or colored pencils)
• 2 googly eyes

Directions:

1. Cut off about 1/3 of a paper plate.
2. Color remaining 2/3 of the paper plate.
3. Cut several lengths of curling ribbon. (We used around 8-12.)
4. Holding scissors open, run one blade gently against the curling ribbon to curl it.
5. Tape curled ribbons to the back of the paper plate to make the tentacles.
6. Give your jellyfish a face. Glue on 2 googly eyes. Draw a mouth if desired.
7. Once glue is dry, you can display your jellyfish.

Optional Materials:

• 2nd paper plate
• newspaper
• fishing line, embroidery floss, yarn, ribbon
• stapler

My Hanging Jellyfish

Optional Directions for Making a Hanging Jellyfish:

1. Cut a second paper plate to match the size of the first. (Or if you want, simply cut a plate in half and use the two halves if you want to have less waste.)
2. Color the second plate to match the first.
3. Crumple newspaper and insert to make jellyfish look fuller.
4. I used rolls of masking tape to secure the two pieces together, but you could use a stapler if you want. (It would be faster, but I didn't want staples showing so I went with tape.)
5. Attach a loop of embroidery floss, yarn, ribbon, fishing line, or similar for hanging your jellyfish.

Other Suggestions:

• I matched the color of the jellyfish's body to the ribbon, but you could make it different colors (or even use several colors of ribbon for a rainbow jellyfish).
• If you don't have curling ribbon, you could substitute any ribbon, yarn, strips of fabric, construction paper, or crepe paper for the tentacles.