This cute bubble wrap fish is one craft you’ll be glad to have in your toolkit. Easy to setup using recycled packaging material, this activity is perfect for pretend play with toddlers and preschoolers.
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Fish crafts are not only fun to make, they support early childhood skills.
Firstly, they provide lots of opportunity for gross motor movement. Kids will love swimming with their squishy fish, bobbing up and down, and diving into a make-believe ‘ocean’.
Secondly, interesting materials like bubble wrap support sensory and fine motor experiences, while promoting creativity.
This fish craft is filled with fun sensory play for kids, using squishy and sticky materials.
- Kids can feel ‘scales’ and ‘fins’ in the squishy texture of the bubble wrap®.
- Kids can form the body and nose of the fish with sticky tape.
Make this fun craft for an ocean theme, or add to your summer activities.
Bubble wrap fish craft
Supplies for fish craft
- masking tape or washi tape
- craft eyes
- bubble wrap
- paint
I used a piece of bubble wrap 14 x 28 inches (36 x 71 cm) but you can easily use whatever amount you have on hand.
The larger the piece of bubble wrap you roll up, the thicker and stronger the fish will be. A more durable fish can be used over and over for pretend play.
Instructions for fish craft
1. Roll up the bubble wrap into a tube shape, with the bubble side out to give the fish a lumpy surface.
Kids can roll and unroll the bubble wrap until they get the shape just right. This action adds fine motor and sensory play.
2. Wrap tape around one end of the bubble wrap tube to secure the bubble wrap in place, while at the same time forming the nose. You can help kids with this step.
If the nose isn’t formed with the first wrapping of the tape, you can always go back with a piece of tape to shape the nose later.
3. Continue wrapping tape around the body of the fish.
Provide reasonable lengths of tape at a time (not too long) that are easy for kids to work with.
Use one color or a mix of different colors.
4. Glue craft eyes near the nose.
5. Cut a fin from bubble wrap and secure to the fish with a piece of tape. Paint the fin if preferred.
6. Cut slits in the end of the tube to form a fish tail that will fan out and swish up and down as the bubble wrap fish ‘swims’ in the ocean.
Pretend play with a bubble fish craft
- Spread a blue blanket “ocean” on the floor where the fish can swim. Dive to the ocean bottom; bob up and on the waves.
- Catch fish in a net.
- Use fish characters in a puppet show.
- ‘Swim’ around the room, wiggling and diving like a fish.
