paper plate fish

The other day at Ikea, the kids made simple fish out of plain white plates.

It was such a cute idea, I just had to come home and spice it up a bit.

So we bought party plates from Target in a variety of colors, started cutting, and an hour later….

We had an entire school of fish!

This project is super easy. And the finished product is so cute and colorful, you can’t help but smile back at them.

1. Start with a paper plate

2. Cut a small triangle from the plate (a la Pacman)

3. Tape the triangle to the back of the plate as the tail

4. Draw an eye (and decorate, if you’d like)

One little goldfish.

After mastering the basics, we mixed it up with bows, flowers, hair, a sailor hat, glitter, and whatever we could find. The possibilities are endless.

Please meet Ernie and Rose:

The only downside to using the colorful party plates is that markers don’t work very well on top. I could barely get the Sharpie to show up for the eye. If your kids would have more fun decorating with crayons and markers, white paper plates work better. Just follow the same steps…

Then decorate.

And show off your best fish face.

We came up with about 15 different fish and the kids gave each one a name. Lucy has been playing with them for 2 days now, making them talk to each other, swim around in the air, and then she tucks them all into make-shift beds on our couch. It’s really cute.

The Brady Bunch gang:

Of course the fish immediately reminded us of their favorite kids’ book, Ten Little Fish. Lucy and Owen have read this book so many times that each page has been taped back together, multiple times. I almost can’t read it anymore or the sing-songy words are stuck in my head for the next two hours.

But just for the fun, here are a few pages….

Eventually all the fish go in different directions, counting down to only….

The two fish get married and have babies.

And the book comes full circle….

bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop…

(those are my fish bubbles)

  1. 1) Susan M Jensen

    These will be perfect to make for church I donate to, They make more from my sample. Fun & maybe they’ll ask me to play. Thank you

  2. I LOVE these!!! I am going to feature them on my blog when we talk about “F”. Thanks for the inspiration!

  3. 3) Nilceia Alves Peresin Cordeiro

    Amei os peixes irei fazer para minha feira de ciencias,que será no sábado…
    obrigada amei sua criatividade… beijocas até…

  4. I just love the idea of making paper fish from paper plates, this is a great idea
    for my story time group, for Thanksgiving we made pilgrims from paper plates,
    and the kids had a great time making those, but these bright colored fish will
    be great…I am a librarian who always worked with adults, but I now work
    at a different library, and I get to plan programs and crafts for all ages.

  5. those plates are so cute and beautiful..

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  8. for Thanksgiving we made pilgrims from paper plates,
    and the kids had a great time making those, but these bright colored fish will
    be great…I am a librarian who always worked with adults

  9. I LOVE these!!! I am going to feature them on my blog when we talk about “F”. Thanks for the inspiration!

  10. 12) Olivia adams

    OMGOMGOMG!!!SOO cute !!!ill share them whith my freinds at school they will love making them!!!????

  11. 13) Olivia adams

    Plz do mabye some egg carton plant nursery crafts !im only 8.????

  12. 14) Olivia adams

    Minecraft crafts too!!!????

  13. 15) Olivia adams

    Th

  14. 16) Olivia adams

    Sorry I’m glitchy.

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  17. 19) Stephanie

    Love your carft work soo cute keep up the good work

  18. 20) Sydney

    I love this project. I am pregnant and i feel when my child is older we will do everything together
    I love children

  19. 21) Ashley Jones

    Excellent blog here! Also your web site loads up very fast! What host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host? I wish my site loaded up as fast as yours lol.
    CrazyAsk

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