Rainbow Fish

Everyone's read the original Rainbow Fish book, but there is a sequel. I read the sequel to keep the children's interest as the first part of this lesson.

The children draw a line near the bottom of a 12 x 18" paper to create an ocean floor. They add some plants, and then we brainstorm different objects and critters that can be in their sea. After they draw them, we paint. Some years I have children color them with water color pencil or water color crayons, some years we paint them, and some years we just color them. Afterward I set out a huge wash of blue liquid watercolor paint for the background. You can make liquid watercolor paint by adding nearly used up watercolor cakes to water and letting them sit. They go a bit rancid after awhile.

Next the children color a coffee filter and a half for the rainbow fish with markers. They remember doing this from their kindergarten butterfly lesson. They paint the filters with water and watch their filters turn rainbow!

The following week I show them how to cut their half filter in half and then cut one of the halves in half to create two fins and a larger tail. We glue the whole thing to a white construction paper. A week later we cut the fish from the paper and add plastic eyes and paper mouths. I like to use hearts for the mouths. Punch a hole in the top of him, tie a string from the ocean paper to the fish and he swims!