DIY Shark Party Game

In trying to come up with party activities for Logan's shark-themed 4th birthday, I was reminded of a magnetic fishing game with sock fish that I had seen on Pinterest. (The link no longer works so I can't show it to you. Sorry.) However, I had also pinned this idea for making a feed-the-shark-beanbag-toss game. I decided to combine the two ideas and this is what I came up with for a young-child-friendly version.

Aside from being an inexpensive party activity, this Shark Bait game was a great way to re-purpose some items that were no longer functioning as intended (but that I was still reluctant to throw away they still could be used for something.) While my sewing skills are not the greatest (which I have previously admitted to here and here), this was still a simple project to pull together with items I already had around the house.

Materials for "Beanbag" Fish:

• old, mismatched socks (Make sure they do not have any holes.)
• buttons (2 per fish)
• thread
• scissors
• rice
• rubber bands (1 per fish)
• puffy paint

 Directions for Making "Beanbag" Fish:

1. Sew two buttons near the toe end of a sock to make eyes. Tip: I found the rolling the socks up made it easier to reach inside the sock in order to get the needle to pass through without getting the thread hopelessly tangled.
2. Add rice to the sock until it is filled up to the heel. Tip: If you don't have rice, use whatever you have on hand; dry beans would work. I've even used beads or small pasta for things like this. Tip: I used a spoon to fill my socks.
3. Secure the "beanbag" by wrapping a rubber band tightly around the heel end of the sock. This should leave you with a "tail" with a length determined by the height of the sock. Ankle socks are, of course, shorter, so you will be done shaping your fish. You may, however, wish to trim the tail-ends of longer socks. Tip: To make it look more tail-like, I held the two sides of the open end together and then used scissors to cut an inverted "V" through both pieces of material.
4. Add a mouth to the fish. I used puffy paint in assorted colors and then left the "beanbags" upside down to allow the paint to dry. Tip: My current favorite material for placing crafts on to dry: cereal box liners. Paint won't stick to it while drying, unlike newspaper, and you can re-use it. And, it's free, unlike wax paper.

Materials for "Chum Bucket":

• large empty container/can
• blue construction paper (2 sheets)
• paper trimmer
• black ink pad
• foam alphabet stamps
• shark stencils
• black Sharpie marker
• glue

Directions for Making "Chum Bucket":

1. First find a large container and make sure it is clean and dry. (I re-used the same cocoa canister that had been made into a drum a few months ago, but a coffee can would also work.)
2. Then, measure the paper to fit around your container. (My ultra-professional method for this? I wrapped the paper around the can, and then used my fingernail to make an indentation to show where the bottom would need to be cut, since the paper was too tall.)
3. Trim the first piece of paper using the paper trimmer, then use it as a guide to cut the second piece to the same size.
4. Stamp "SHARK BAIT" with foam alphabet stamps onto one piece of the construction paper.
5. Use shark stencils to draw a shark on either side of the wording. Fill in the sharks with black Sharpie. (I used the Mako and Blue shark stencils for this.)
6. Glue the blank piece of paper onto your container first. Then, layer the stamped piece over it so that the entire container is covered.
7. Place the "beanbag" fish into the "chum bucket" and get ready to play "Shark Bait."

 How to Play "Shark Bait":

1. You will need: a hula hoop, your chum bucket, and your "beanbag" fish.
2. Lay the hula hoop on the ground to make a "shark pool."
3. Have children stand back and toss the "bait" into the "pool." (Younger kids will stand closer, obviously.)

That's actually all I had planned for this game. No scoring system or anything too complicated or too challenging, just simple fun for preschoolers. Now, some of our bigger party guests decided to make it more challenging for school-age kids by holding the hula hoop up in the air and creating a moving target for others to pitch through, and that made it far more interesting to them.

One last note: I suggest that you make this an outdoor game. We had one "beanbag" burst open before the party and that meant that I had rice all over my living room, and while having rice all over my house is not something I am unfamiliar with (for fun things to do with rice check out my posts here and here), it was not exactly what I had in mind for our party game. Fortunately, the weather cooperated, and we were able to play outdoors on the day of the party.

DIY Shark Party Decor: Warning Signs and Land Sharks

Logan's 4th birthday party turned out to be pretty "jawsome" and these homemade decorations helped set the tone right as guests were arriving. I was inspired by these signs that I saw online. So, I set out to make my own, using my cheap, go-to-party-decor material: cardboard. After the past couple of birthday parties -- Care Bears for Mia's 6th and Cars for Logan's 3rd -- I have decided that I can make just about anything out of cardboard! So, these signs and shark fins were not very difficult or time-consuming for me, and I was able to make them almost entirely with items I already had at home. (The only thing I had to purchase was another small bottle of yellow acrylic paint, which I believe was 53 cents at Wal-mart.)

{CAUTION: Shark Sighting!}

Materials for Fins:

• corrugated cardboard
• pencil
• scissors
• gray primer (or paint)
• large foam paintbrush
• Styrofoam tray (to hold paint)
• cereal box liner (to protect work surface)
• wooden skewers (2 per fin)

Directions for Making Fins:

1. Draw a shark fin onto the cardboard and cut it out. (I made three because odd numbers always make sense from a design perspective.)
2. Lay the cut-out on a flat surface. (Mine was the dining table protected by the cereal box liner.)
3. Cover the first side with gray primer (Paint would work as well, but Brett pointed out that we had primer already. Score! I didn't need to mix paints or buy any extra. This provided very good coverage, quickly and easily.) Let the primer/paint dry completely before moving the fin.
4. Now, flip it over and paint the other side. Again, let it dry completely, or you will end up with smudged paint. (Note: I also painted the outside edges of the fin, as best as I could. This is best left until the end of the painting process.)
5. Insert two skewers into the bottoms of each fin. These will fit directly into the spaces of the corrugated cardboard. Mine were placed about two inches from the outside edges. Tip: I found it tricky to insert the blunt ends into the cardboard, so I first expanded the openings by sticking in the sharp end of each skewer. Then, I removed the skewers, and flipped them around so that the sharp ends were pointed down. 
6. Stick skewers into the ground to make the sharks "swim" in your lawn. The skewers may end up poking up through the tops of the fins, so push them down and re-adjust as needed until they look the way that you want.

Materials for Warning Signs:

• corrugated cardboard
• pencil
• ruler
• scissors
• shark stencil
• black Sharpie marker
• yellow acrylic paint
• large foam paintbrush
• Styrofoam tray (to hold paint)
• cereal box liner (to protect work surface)
• 2 wooden skewers (for yard sign)
• masking tape (for hanging on door) 

Directions for Making Warning Signs:

1. Using a ruler for assistance, draw a rectangle shape from a piece of cardboard, to the dimensions that you would like. (Note: I decided on smaller signs than I have made in the past, for Logan's 2nd birthday which had a construction theme. This made things go faster, which was perfect, in my opinion. My "DANGER" sign is just 9" x 9" and my "CAUTION" sign is about 8 1/2" by 10 1/2".) Cut out your sign. Repeat as desired.
2. Protect work surface (and clothing) and then cover sign/s with yellow acrylic paint. Let dry, and add a second coat.
3. Using a ruler and a black Sharpie marker, create a black border for each sign. (On the "CAUTION" sign, this is set in about 1/2" and on the "DANGER" sign, it's only about 1/4".) 
4. Decide on the placement of the shark for each sign. Set the stencil down and then trace around the inside with your black marker. Fill in the entire shark outline. (Note: I used the Great White shark stencil from the set.)
5. Add your lettering. I chose to hand-letter the signs, but you could also use black letter stickers as a time-saver. I suggest using a ruler and a pencil to lightly block these in. First create a space for each word with a lightly-penciled line to show the tops of the letter and a lightly-penciled line to show the bottoms of the letters. I had three such lines for each sign. Then, find the approximate center of each word or grouping of words, and pencil in that central letter. Work your way out toward each side. Once the lettering looks the way you like (Remember, it doesn't need to be perfect! Mine certainly aren't.), go over it with black Sharpie. You can make corrections as you go. When in doubt, make the letters thicker. Note: The "CAUTION" sign also has some waves that I drew by hand so that the shark appears to be swimming near the top of the water.
6. Post your warning signs. I used masking tape to hang the "DANGER" sign on the front door. For the "CAUTION" sign, I used two wooden skewers, inserted with the same method as mentioned above for the shark fins. Then, I stuck it into the front yard near the "shark sighting" area with the three visible fins. 

Hanging Jellyfish Craft

To prepare for Logan's shark themed 4th birthday party, I decided that we needed a few hanging decorations and these jellyfish were perfect. The inspiration came from here and we made a few changes. The first was that I didn't have any bowls to use so I had to buy some. The original directions used paper bowls and watercolor paints which is lovely, but I found that Styrofoam bowls were cheaper so that is what we got. Since watercolors weren't an option with Styrofoam, we used acrylic paints instead. I loved the idea this person had for using up ribbon scraps, and I expanded it by adding the bubble wrap. I think this gives them some extra jellyfishy-ness, and it's a cute way to re-use some packaging material we had laying around.

This was a fun little project that both kids were able to help with by choosing the color scheme and then painting the bowls and bubble wrap accordingly. They also helped picked the ribbons to include, because believe it or not, I am such a ribbon junkie that we actually had to reject some in order to make it all fit and not look too cluttered. (Please tell me I am not the only person who can't go to Michaels without digging through their ribbon bin to see what there is!) Here is how we made our happy jellyfish, just in time for a celebration under-the-sea.

{A trio of friendly jellyfish.}

Materials:

• Styrofoam bowls
• acrylic paint/s in your color choices
• bubble wrap
• Styrofoam trays (to hold paint)
• foam paint brushes
• scissors
• googly eyes
• tacky glue
• assorted ribbon scraps
• masking tape
• fishing line (for hanging)

Directions:

1. First, I laid some bubble wrap, textured side up, and a bowl (Styrofoam or paper), upside down, at each work surface. I poured some paint onto a Styrofoam tray (You could also use a plate or bowl.) and then we used paintbrushes to apply acrylic paints. Foam paintbrushes worked well for this. Tip: Before starting, protect clothing and work surfaces as acrylic paints will stain. My kids wear old t-shirts of mine and Logan's is especially large on him, so I close it at the back of the neck with a clothespin. To cover the tabletop, we used cereal box liners, one per person. (Note: If you are concerned about bacteria from meat packaging, first run your Styrofoam trays through the dishwasher on the top rack. It will sterilize them without damaging the Styrofoam!) Allow paint to dry completely.
2. Using scissors, I cut the painted bubble wrap into strips, lengthwise. I cut each piece so that there were 6 strips, each one about 3/4 - 1 inch wide.
3. Then, I adhered the strips of bubble wrap to the inside of the bowls using tacky glue. We spaced our out so that they were somewhat even, although it does not need to be perfect by any means. Tip: We found it best to apply glue to the smooth side of the bubble wrap.
4. Next, we grouped together a variety of ribbons including: grosgrain, sheer, curling, yarn, wired, raffia, rickrack, whatever we had on hand, trimming them to the desired lengths (not all the same length). After the kids made their final choices, (red for Logan's, pink/purple for Mia's, and blue for mine), I bundled the ribbons together with masking tape and then affixed the bundles to the undersides of the bowls. I also used scissors to curl the curling ribbon and make adjustments to the lengths of ribbons as needed.
5. They added googly eyes to each jellyfish using tacky glue. 
   
6. Lastly, I poked two small holes in the top of each jellyfish for hanging. (I think I used a pin from my cork board for this.) For each jellyfish, I threaded fishing line through the tops of the two holes and then knotted it underneath, after I had strung the jellyfish up on my dining room chandelier. Then, I trimmed and excess fishing line and stood back to admire our friendly-faced jellyfish.

One Last Summer Craft

{The pie tin was handy for catching stray sand.}

After a recent trip Up North to see Grandma and Grandpa, I let Mia collect some sand to go along with her shells (zebra mussels). I had seen this project for a mermaid wand in the FamilyFun Magazine and figured she would love it. We used a skewer in place of a dowel, which I don't necessarily recommend for two reasons: 1) they are sharp, and 2) it's not as long as a dowel. (That said, I had skewers on hand, and it worked fine.) I wasn't sure where the tacky glue was so we used regular Elmer's glue in its place. I also do not recommend this. The sand was falling off (although I am not entirely convinced this wouldn't happen will tacky glue, too), so I ended up throwing it away. Shhh. Don't tell Mia. Here are the actual directions for making the mermaid wand craft. Of course, theirs looks much more professional. This is the 4 year old version.

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Sun Catchers

{Blue Fish by Mia, Age 4}

{Red Fish by Mia, Age 4}

Materials:

• red or blue construction paper
• scissors
• clear contact paper
• red or blue tissue paper
• pencil 
• clear tape
• paper trimmer (optional)
• hole punch (optional)
• yarn, string, ribbon, etc. for hanging (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut red or blue tissue paper into small squares. Older kids can do this themselves. We used approximately 1/2 inch squares, but you could make yours bigger. 
2. Fold a piece of red or blue construction paper in half like a hamburger (or use two pieces of construction paper if you would like to make a larger sun catcher).
3. Draw a fish shape (or trace around a cookie cutter or a picture from the internet) onto one half (or one piece) of the paper, and cut out the fish. Do not draw your design too close to the edges of the paper. Cut paper in half along the fold. You should now have two pieces of paper with identical fish cut-outs.  Tip: If you are using two pieces of paper, you will need to make sure they stay together so that you get identical fish.
4. Cut two pieces of clear contact paper (I used both a paper trimmer and scissors for this.) so that they are 1/4 inch larger than the construction paper all the way around. Tip: Do not remove backing from contact paper until you are ready to use it.
5. Adhere one piece of paper to the clear contact paper so that there is a border of 1/4 inch all around the paper. Tip: Slowly peel the contact paper away from the backing as you smooth the construction paper down onto the contact paper. This way you don't end up with "bubbles."
6. Have your child stick tissue paper squares onto the contact paper fish shape until it is filled (or nearly filled like Mia's).
7. Layer the second piece of construction paper on top of the first, making sure that the fish shapes line up.
8. Add the second piece of contact paper over the top, smoothing it down as you go. Trim away excess if desired, but don't trim too much or the sun catcher will not stay together. 
9. You can display your sun catcher in a window using clear tape. Another option is to use a hole punch to make two holes near the top, thread some ribbon or yarn through the holes, tie it off, and then hang your sun catcher.

A Mermaid's Tale

It has taken me awhile, but I wanted to document Mia's 4th birthday party, which in my opinion, was a huge success! Mia's favorite movie is "The Little Mermaid" so we celebrated "Under the Sea" on January 29, 2011, her actual birthday. I did quite a bit of planning during January and I will be the first to admit I probably went overboard, but it was a really nice party. Everyone seemed to have a great time. (And I spent much more time than money, which was my goal.)

The Invitations:

Most of the guests (friends and family) were invited by email. I used evite for this. They didn't have a mermaid themed invitation so I used one that was intended for a pool party. For the remaining guests (three kids from preschool and one down the street), I made invitations using pre-made cards and rubber stamps (some sea shells and one that allowed me to fill in the details for the date, time, and location of the party.)

The Decorations:

Mia and I made a few under the sea craft projects to use for decorations including paper plate fish, which we taped on the walls in the dining room. We also made toilet paper tube octopi and I made some star fish cut from cardboard egg carton cups and painted with acrylic paints, both of which we used as table decorations. I just set them on top of the blue plastic table cover I bought at the dollar store and then cut down to fit our dining table. In one of my moments of inspiration while preparing for the party, I decided to use clear packaging tape to secure the table cover. (Basically, I remembered what a pain they can be since they slip all around-- not good when you have a bunch of young children eating! Anyway, this was a good idea, and I will tuck it away for the next birthday party.) There was some left over, so I used it for the card table we set up for extra seating in the living room. 

Other wall decorations included a package of tropical fish cut-outs from the dollar store and taped those on the front door and on the wall in the living room. I also got two different shades of blue curling ribbon from the dollar store. I cut these into strips, which we alternately taped to the arch that is between our dining room and living room. It looked like waves and I thought it was fun for people to walk through. I think this was worth the time because it really helped set the undersea look without costing much money. 

The single decoration I am most proud of (and yes I will sound crazy when you find out how long I spent working on it!) was a four foot tall cardboard Ariel. I bought this online from Birthday Express. It was on clearance for $2.99 so I actually spent more on shipping than for the kit itself. It was intended to be a child's coloring activity and came with some cheap quality crayons. I, however, painted mine with acrylics, which took a total of about 6 hours over the course of a few evenings. If I didn't find painting relaxing, this would have been a really insane endeavor, but for me, it was fun. Then, the four main sections had to be connected like a giant puzzle. My only complaint was that the outlines of Ariel, Flounder, Sebastian, and the other little characters were this odd magenta color, so I had to go over everything with a black Sharpie for it to look finished. I managed to keep this a surprise from Mia and she thought it was pretty amazing to have a life-size Ariel at her party. I took pictures of all the kids with Ariel as they arrived, and then printed off the pictures to include in the thank you cards.

The Food:

Brett was kind of annoyed with me when we had leftovers of food that we don't like (which, yes, in retrospect wasn't wise), but I wanted to have the theme of "Under the Sea" continued with food. We served shells and cheese, hot dogs (I was planning for "octo-dogs" ~ I saw this idea online: Supposedly you can slice eight sections into a hot dog, boil it, and the ends will curl up to look like tentacles. The reality is that I am not that talented with a knife! I tried one, messed it up completely, and decided that it was really not worth the frustration when kids are perfectly happy to eat regular hot dogs), and tuna salad sandwiches (I was thinking of shaping the bread into fish using a cookie cutter, but didn't have time for that. Besides, I figured I had done enough already.) There were goldfish crackers, "sea cucumber" slices, "sea grapes," and "coral" (Cheetos) to eat. We had punch to drink. I made this mixing Sprite together with blue Hawaiian Punch. For dessert, we had blue Jello cups with a Swedish fish in each. (It seemed like a good idea, but personally, I would not do that again. The fish were hard to see and they ended up kind of slimy so the kids wouldn't eat them.)

The cake turned out great! I impressed even myself. The base for the cake is just a flattened cardboard shipping box reinforced with packaging tape and then covered with aluminum foil. Mia had requested a cake that looked like a mermaid, so I found this idea and improved upon it. (I found it too weird that the mermaid had no arms and a disproportionately large head!) The original plan calls for a 13" x 9" cake pan and an 8" round cake pan, but I decided to use a 10" round pan instead. Once it was baked, I traced a smaller circle in the center using a lid from a large margarine tub. After cutting out the smaller circle, I used half of the outer ring for arms by simply cutting it into two parts. The last section I threw away (gasp!). Wasteful, I know, but there was a lot of cake after using two mixes. I cut the tail exactly the way the website shows and skipped the cupcakes for hair. Mia had selected Golden Butter flavor by Duncan Hines, which was really yummy. I normally buy Betty Crocker but I am considering switching. To make the mermaid's flesh tone, I mixed red and yellow gel food colors into white canned frosting. For the tail, I used green gel food coloring. For Ariel's purple shell bra top, I mixed red and blue gel food coloring. I used about 2 whole tubs of white frosting altogether. For decoration, I was inspired to use M & M's for the scales on the tail after I saw this cake online. Then, I decided that licorice would make perfect "Ariel" hair after I saw this picture. The main difference is that I used Twizzler's Pull n' Peel, which I think looks better. Plus, it's softer, and I'm assuming that makes it easier to cut the cake.

Some cake tips I have picked up along the way: 

• When making a layer cake or in this case, a shaped cake, spray the pan generously with cooking spray and line it with wax paper. This makes it much easier to get the cake out of the pan. 
• I also set the cakes onto wax paper to cool completely before cutting them. (This was something I tried this time around since my cake stuck to my cutting board last time I made a layer cake.) 
• I discovered this time around that gel food coloring works better than the liquid. (Basically, the frosting slid right off of Logan's 1st birthday cupcakes because of heat and I am assuming, liquid food coloring.)

Under the Sea Activities:
Other than having photos taken with the stand-up Ariel and having "The Little Mermaid" soundtrack playing during the party (I bought it on eBay.), I only had two games planned, which seemed to be the right amount for 4 year olds. The first was Pin the Tail on Ariel which I made by coloring a large picture of Ariel using colored pencils. Then, I spent $2 to have it laminated at Staples. (It's now hanging in Mia's bedroom as a poster.) Next, I used tracing paper to trace her tail, cut that out and used it to make a template. I traced this several times onto green construction paper and cut them out. We used a scarf for a blindfold. Everyone enjoyed this game. After that, we had Sebastian's Crab-Walk Race, which was hilarious! I simply lined the kids up across the living room and had them crab-walk the length of the room. This was fun for the kids and fun for the adults who were watching.

                

This party turned out to be a lot of fun! It was a fair bit of work getting ready, but I think it was worth it. And really, most of the ideas were ones I found here, so it's not like I had to come up with everything myself.

Toilet Paper Tube Octopus

We are in the midst of preparing for Mia's fourth birthday party "Under the Sea," which means we are making lots of crafty sea creatures. There are several versions of this toilet paper tube octopus posted online. I used this as our starting point. Then I decided to try craft foam suction cups after I saw this and sequins when I found this one. Here is how I made ours.

Materials:

• toilet paper tube
• scissors
• acrylic paint
• foam paintbrush
• newspaper
• wax paper
• markers
• glue
• 2 googly eyes

Optional Materials:

• sequins
• craft foam
• hole punch
• circle stickers
• construction paper

Directions:

1. Using scissors, cut 8 legs in a toilet paper tube. I cut just past the halfway point. It is tricky to get the legs all the same width, but they are approximately 1/2 inch in diameter.
2. Cover work surface with newspaper. Paint the tube inside and out. Allow paint to dry. (I found that wax paper works nicely for a drying surface since the paint doesn't stick to it like it will to newspaper. This is helpful when you are painting both sides of the tube at the same time.)
3. Using a marker (or pencil or your finger), curl up the ends of each of the 8 tentacles.
4. Decorate the octopus as desired. Glue on 2 googly eyes and use a marker to draw a mouth. For the suction cups on the tentacles, you have a few options. We tried foam and sequins, but you could also use stickers or use a hole punch to make circles out of construction paper.

Note: I also tried reversing steps 1 and 2, but I preferred it this way. I thought it was easier to paint inside the tube after cutting rather than before.

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.

Paper Plate Fish Craft

We are getting ready to throw an "Under the Sea" themed 4th birthday party for our "little mermaid," which means Mia and I have been making some sea creature crafts lately. First up is a paper plate fish craft. I got the idea for this when I saw something similar at a library Up North over Christmas.

Paper Plate Fish By Mia (Almost 4!)

Materials:

• 2 paper plates
• 1 googly eye
• scissors
• glue or tape
• markers (or crayons or colored pencils)

Optional Materials:  

• sequins
• beads 
• pom poms, etc.

Directions:

Tip: Use clothespins to hold pieces in place while glue dries.

1. Take one paper plate and make two cuts meeting in a vee for the fish's mouth. Save the wedge-shaped cut-out for the fish's tail.
2. Glue or tape the tail piece to the paper plate opposite the mouth.
3. Fold a second paper plate in half and cut along the fold. Next, take one half of the plate and fold and cut it into two halves. These two pieces will be fins.
4. Glue or tape one fin to the top of the fish and the other to the bottom of the fish. I found that the inside edge of the ridged part was the perfect place to glue the fins to the plate.
5. Decorate your fish using markers, colored pencils, or crayons. (We used washable markers.)
6. Glue on a googly eye.
7. If desired, add texture and visual interest to your fish's design by gluing on sequins, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, beads, pom poms, or anything else you can think of.
8. Make sure glue is dry before displaying your fish.