Your child will love making this ocean-themed craft

Does your child love the idea of having their own fish tank? If heading to the pet shop and buying your child a fish isn’t on your to-do list, why not help them make their own aquarium instead? Best of all, you won’t need to remind them to feed Nemo every day!

Although this activity is designed for children aged three and upwards, even toddlers will enjoy making this craft. Mom and dad can help with the more difficult tasks such as cutting out the fish and other sea animals.

What you will need:

• Any size box, but it will work better if the box is bigger than a shoebox. This will be the background for your ocean scene.
• Mid blue, grey, and Aquamarine Acrylic paint.
• A large paintbrush.
• Small rocks and shells (if you have any lying around)
• Green pipe cleaners or green cardboard to make seaweed.
• Thread to hang sea animals from the box.
• Old magazines or books to cut out sea animals and a sea background to paste on your blue background.
• Thin cardboard to glue to the back of your sea animals.
• Scissors
• Crayons
• All-purpose glue

How to make it:

1. Paint the inside of your box with the mid-blue paint and use a little bit of the aquamarine paint in between to create the ocean effect.
2. Paint the outside of your box with the grey paint and let it dry.
3. Cut out a sea background from an old magazine or book and paste it to the back of your ‘ocean’ box on the inside.
4. Cut out pictures of sea life traced from colouring-in books, found on the Internet or in old magazines, and glue the back of the pictures to the thin cardboard. Cut out and colour in with the crayons.
5. Make small holes in the top side of your box and in your sea-life cut-outs. Feed the thread through and hang your sea creatures from the box.
6. Cut out your seaweed from green cardboard and paste it to the bottom of your box or use green pipe cleaners to make seaweed and also glue them to your background.
7. Glue any small stones and shells to the bottom of the box.