Toddlers and preschoolers will adore this simple paper plate jellyfish craft. It’s the perfect craft for a preschool ocean theme or if you’re focusing on sea animals at daycare or home.
We’ve made a ton of paper plate crafts here this year. In fact, we’ve just completed our A-Z collection of paper plate crafts – a project which had us make at least one paper plate craft for every letter of the alphabet. It’s a nice, big round-up so you’ll have all of my paper plate crafts in one place.
For now, I’d like to show you our latest. Our paper plate Jellyfish. Isn’t he adorable?
For your convenience this post contains affiliate links.
We think this craft would be super if you were working on a sea or ocean theme at daycare. You could hang dozens of these little guys from the ceiling or against a bulletin board covered in ocean-blue paper. Remember Finding Nemo? This little fella reminds me of one of the jellies that Dory had to maneuver her way through.
No paper plate? Try coffee filters!
If you don’t have paper plates, don’t worry! We have this coffee filter jelly fish you can make too!
How to Make a Paper Plate Jelly Fish
Supplies:
- Pink paint (or whatever colour your child prefers)
- Paper plate cut in half
- googley eyes
- glue
- various lengths of pink ribbon
- tape
- pencil
Start by painting half of a paper plate. I didn’t photograph this first step. We were doing a several crafts on this morning because these two hooligans are not here often. They’re in full day school now, so it’s only once in a while that they join me for the day. When they do, we craft like crazy because they enjoy it so much, so I was probably busy prepping another craft while they were painting their paper plates for this one.
When the paint on your jellyfish has (give it a blast with the hairdryer if you need to speed things up), have your child tape various lengths of pink ribbon to the bottom of the plate.
The hooligans worked together on this step. One was the cutter, snipping lengths of ribbon from the skein and piling them up on the table. The other one was the taper. He taped all of those ribbons evenly against the back of the paper plate. This was no easy feat. Sticky tape has a tendency to double over and stick to itself and to your fingers, and to everything BUT the thing you’re trying to stick it too. It was good for a few laughs, but he got the job done.
With a little help from his friend, of course.
And the last step was to give our jellyfish a face A couple of googly eyes and a pencil-drawn did the trick.
Oh my cuteness!
Looking for more easy paper plate crafts? Check out:
Get my latest e-book: Fizz, Pop, Bang! Playful Science and Math Activities
40 hands-on, learning activities for kids ages 3-8. Recipes, experiments, art projects, printables and play ideas with links to 80 activities not featured in the book. All for the low price of $9.99
Follow the Hooligans on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter!
Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
Leave a Reply