Paper Fan Fish

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This summer really is ALL ABOUT Paper Crafts for Kids. Well most of us DO have paper.. and if you don’t I encourage you invest in pad of colourful paper, as it is relatively inexpensive and oh so versatile! Today’s paper craft of choice are these adorable Paper Fan Fish! These fish join our growing School of Fish, that you can check out in our Paper Fish Craft Collection!!! Make them as darling decorations, as part of an Under the Sea display, make shoe box fish tank or stick them on summer greeting cards.. lots of uses for these cute little paper fish craft. Just adorable, and yes you guessed it, EASY to make too! They make a great Summer Craft for Preschoolers or all year round.

My daughter is a huge fan of all “paper fan crafts”, I am not sure why, maybe it is the process, maybe it is how pretty any kind of fan looks afterwards… so she is really excited about these Paper Fan Fish!! (Our favourite Paper Fan are these Melon Fans – so cheerful!)
Paper Fan Fish Craft for kids - how to make a paper fish craft - this is such a cute and easy DIY Paper Fish for Kids to make. A lovely Summer Decoration and for under the sea study units. They make great DIY Greeting Cards too!

Paper Fan Fish

Materials to make your paper fan fish

Paper Fan Fish Craft for kids - how to make a paper fish craft - this is such a cute and easy DIY Paper Fish for Kids to make. A lovely Summer Decoration and for under the sea study units. They make great DIY Greeting Cards too!

  • Colourful paper – for each fish we used 1 sheet of 15 x 15cm, 6 x 6cm and paper scraps – the measurements are not exact and you can experiment
  • Scissors, pen and glue stick

How to make a Paper Fish

We have a choice of Step by Step Instructions for how to make a paper fish OR you can watch our short video to see how they are made! I hope you like both versions. Don’t forget you get to see everything FIRST on YouTube, so be sure to hop over and subscribe to be first to see our latest crafts!

How to make a Paper Fan Fish Step By Step instructions

And here are the step by step photo instructions!! These Paper Fish really are super easy to make and I think you will have a lot of fun with them!

Paper Fan Fish Craft for kids - how to make a paper fish craft - this is such a cute and easy DIY Paper Fish for Kids to make. A lovely Summer Decoration and for under the sea study units. They make great DIY Greeting Cards too!Take your larger piece of paper (in our case 15 x 15cm) and concertina it in about 1cm folds.

Paper Fan Fish Craft for kids - how to make a paper fish craft - this is such a cute and easy DIY Paper Fish for Kids to make. A lovely Summer Decoration and for under the sea study units. They make great DIY Greeting Cards too!

The next part of your paper fan fish is the tail – take your smaller piece of paper (in our case the blue piece measuring 6 x 6 xm) and conertina that too. This time, I made the fold slightly smaller maybe 0.5-0.7cm.

Now you need to cut out some find in contrasting coluors – we used  a small blue semi cirlce and drew some lines on it as extra detail.

Your paper fish craft will also need some eyes. A 5p coin makes a good template or cut them free hand.

When you have all your paper fish pieces ready, fold both your body concertina and fish tail concertina in half.
Paper Fan Fish Craft for kids - how to make a paper fish craft - this is such a cute and easy DIY Paper Fish for Kids to make. A lovely Summer Decoration and for under the sea study units. They make great DIY Greeting Cards too!

Glue the fish tail concertina “shut” and then glue onto the back of your body (see image), insert your fins. and then glue your body down.Paper Fan Fish Craft for kids - how to make a paper fish craft - this is such a cute and easy DIY Paper Fish for Kids to make. A lovely Summer Decoration and for under the sea study units. They make great DIY Greeting Cards too!

Now your paper fish only needs its last little detail – some eyes. Glue thos on and your are done! Aren’t they easy and adorable? Such fun and easy paper fish!Paper Fan Fish Craft for kids - how to make a paper fish craft - this is such a cute and easy DIY Paper Fish for Kids to make. A lovely Summer Decoration and for under the sea study units. They make great DIY Greeting Cards too!

We now used a little bit of sewing cotton and tape to hang our fish. We also used our scrap paper leftovers to make some little baby paper fish too. They are perfect for our display but would also look fabulous on a greeting card!

We have lots more great Paper Crafts for you to explore! As well as great Summer Crafts for Preschoolers here:

More great Paper Fish Crafts:

You may also LOVE these Under the Sea Paper Plate Craft for kids too:

Why not check out these ideas here too –