Nov 15, 2008

Soda bottle fish

Or fizzy pop bottle fish if you're from where I'm from. We made about 12 of these over the month leading up to my older daughter's pirate-superhero-mermaid party. I had to cut the fish out of the bottles with a pair of large scissors and an exacto knife, but the kids all got to paint and decorate them together to make a mermaid tropical lagoon under the play structure bridge at the park.
Here's a photo showing how I cut up the big 2 litre soda bottles (I raided friends recycling bins again for this project, so thank you to anyone that helped source all the pop bottles for me). I tried making a couple of fish out of smaller bottles, but they just didn't work quite as well and it was nice for the preschoolers to have a big bottle fish as a canvas, rather than something smaller and more fiddly anyway.
Simply cut the neck of the bottle out to make the fish mouth. I then glued one of those little paper condiment cups into the hole to make cute little fish lips. Cut the bottom off the bottle and then squash the sides flat onto each other to cut out the tail and fins. Use a couple of bits of tape to hold the tail together.

I cut out a load of construction paper into scale shapes and the kids glued them on, some very tidily and some willy nilly, but when they were all done they made a very cute reef full.

Here's the lagoon under the play structure with the spent piniata.
My kids loved the fact that they looked like the fish out of the book "Rainbow Fish", which is one of thier favourites.

12 comments:

MaryAnne said...

I think these are great!

Julie m said...

Very cool!

Delilah said...

Very fun, swim on little mermaid

Anonymous said...

I don't know where you're from, but I bought several of these in Rhode Island years ago. I love them!

Katherine said...

These are very cute!

Mary Grace said...

These crafts looks perfect for a children's program I am planning this summer. Just a few questions I was wondering if you could answer. First, were these fish painted before the scales went on-some of them looked coloured underneath? Also, how long appropriately does craft take. Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful idea!

Anonymous said...

I love your fish! Our church's Bible School, Operation Overboard, had over 600 fish and jelly fish hanging from our ceiling this summer. A wonderful underwater world. We painted the inside and decorated our outsides similarly--some with glitter. We used the bottom of the bottle upside down with streamers to make seaweed and our jellyfish.

Cindy deRosier said...

I'm the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your fish project! You can see it here:

http://funfamilycrafts.com/soda-bottle-fish/

If you have other kid friendly crafts, we'd love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this pg. My son is in kindergarden and had to do a fish made of recycled materials. I was able to do it thanks to you.

Anonymous said...

Could I have permission to show a group of Librarians your soda bottle fish and instructions? I will be teaching them ideas for church library displays in November 2013. This fish along with children's books about fish would make a very nice display. The group will include Baptist church librarians from the Dallas area. There will be about 20 churches represented. Thank you... Barbara

Unknown said...

Just love your underwater scenery, perfect for any water themed party. I've featured it on my pirate party theme inspiration post, it's looking good! http://www.stylemyparty.co.uk/blog/pirate-party-inspiration-free-printable/

Anonymous said...

This is such a great idea! I forwarded it to my granddaughter for her daughter! Thanks so much!