Fish Crafts and Activities for an Ocean Theme - Preschool

For DIY flash cards, sight words, and getting started with a preschool ocean theme lesson plan, please visit Ocean Theme

After exploring crabs and dolphins at the start of our ocean month, we moved onto fish! 

Click to download and print this fish info sheet as an introduction to your child. for best results, 

print on card stock and then laminate with contact paper so you can keep it around all month without too much wear and tear. Show the info sheet to your child and then ask them questions about what you've just read. ex- "Where do fish swim?"

You can also have your child pretend to be a fish by making fishy faces :)

Recommended books:

Puffer fish / Rake, Jody Sullivan 

Clown fish / Lindeen, Carol

Fish is Fish / Lionni, Leo

The Fish Book / Angelfish, Christopher

In the Swim / Florian, Douglas

Fish Count and Sort/Match

What you will need:

Contact paper

scrap booking paper

scissors

glue stick

Numbers

First, fold your first piece of scrap booking paper in half so that the white of the paper is showing and the pattern/color is on the inside. Take a pencil and draw a simple fish shape. Fold your other colored papers the same way and put two or three more under the first and cut out the fish. This will limit the amount of cutting by giving you more fish with one cut. Repeat until you used all your paper and have 10 pairs of fish. Cut out all the numbers from the printout above and tack one to each fish using your glue stick. I also took a marker and drew a little eye on each fish. For lasting use, laminate them with contact paper. You can make so many games out of these!

Fish Songs

I'm a Fish

Sung to: "Little Teapot"

I'm a little fishy, I can swim
Here is my tail, here is my fin.
When I want to have fun with my friends,
I wiggle my tail and dive right in!

Fish Are Swimming

Sung to: "Frere Jacques"

Fish are swimming, fish are swimming,

In the sea, in the sea,

A-splishing and a-splashing,

A-splishing and a-splashing,

Look and see, look and see.

CD Fish

What you will need:

CD

white glue

foam craft sheet

multi colored sequins

googly eye

hot glue

I fist cut some foam shapes out of the foam and hot glued them to the underneath of the disc. You can use construction paper if you dont want to use the foam, I just had scraps around and thought it would be great for this. After that was set, I handed it over to Lucy and gave her a paint brush to paint on a layer of white glue. She then got to sprinkle all the sequins (scales) on as well as the googly eye! 

Perler Bead Fish

What you will need:

Perler bead kit with fish template

Iron

Parchment paper 

I can remember doing these when I was in school and loved them so much! So, when I saw the kits at  the craft store I decided it was going o be one of Lucy's birthday presents regardless of what the age said on the box lol. This activity is not for small children as there are very small parts that are a choking hazard. Unless you are confident in your child's understanding of not putting non food items in their mouths, do not attempt this activity. Even if you are confident, this requires your full supervision. I would most recommend this to a parent or caregiver who wants to try something new with their children and who wont mind dong a lot of the work with them :)

Lucy did pretty well at this! She was able to handle the little perler beads very well and place them on the template until she started to fill it up more and it got harder to put them into the very small spaces which is where I came in to help her finish it. Piece of parchment over the top, iron gently until the beads have melted together, without burning the paper and voila! Our kit also came with a dolphin and an octopus template. Perfect for our ocean theme!

Ocean Bottle

What you will need:

Water bottle

Hot glue

small fish toys

blue food coloring

cooking oil

water 

Fill an empty bottle about 1/2 way with water and add a couple drops of blue food coloring. Next you can add glitter, sequins, small shells or small fish toys. Fill the remainder of the bottle with cooking oil and hot glue the cap on nice and tight! I also like to use duct tape around the base of the cap, just to make sure :) 

Online resources: 

Ocean

Ocean Song

Fish counting game

Field trip ideas