Hooray for Fish – Footprint Fish for Kids

A wonderful and fun Summer Craft for Preschoolers. When my kids were little they LOVED to get messy with paints. They enjoyed handprint art, as well as footprint art. So one warm summers day.. we got out one of favourite books – Hooray for Fish, our paints and brushes and had a lovely “story and art” in the garden session. Red Ted really got stuck in and we made a wonderful set of Footprint Fish for Kids. We turned all our hand and feet into a lovely wall frieze for his bedroom. So cute, easy and fun. You can’t beat footprint crafts in summer!

 

In case you haven’t visited before this is about a craft project inspired by books – Story + Art = Great stART (inspired by Playing By the Book and  A Mommy’s Adventure ). We love these projects, as we love books and we love art.  This helps us focus our creative activities a little and when stuck for something to do, grab a book for inspiration!!

I actually did this one all backward. I was trying to come up with a craft project that you could do with babies (I have a couple of loyal readers itching to get stuck in, but their little ones are indeed still too little). The obvious thing to do with babies is anything to do with footprints. Handprints too, but they are harder, as babies tend to clench their fist! So, what can one do with feet?

Hooray for Fish

Hooray for Fish US/ UK (affiliate links added for convenience)

Eventually I remembered Hooray for Fish, by Lucy Cousins. Red Ted has loved this book for a LONG time. I think we first read it with him when he was 9 months old. I nice story about a little fish and all his friends. We love it. It is a rhyming book about a little fish off to see all his friends. Big Fish and Little Fish. Stripey Fish and Spotty Fish… all sorts of fish. At the very end however, he comes back to the Fish He Loves Best (Mummy Fish!). I love the bold bright colourful illustrations combined with the rhymes. Easy for young children to follow and learn basic patterns and counting.

As the little fish, has lots of fishy friends that come in all shapes and sizes, I decided this book would be perfect for all sorts of shapes and sizes of Footprint Fish…

Unfortunately, Pip Squeak wasn’t well, so I didn’t want to subject her to paint and the outdoors. So, Red Ted and I ventured out alone. Do, do this with your baby, it will provide a colourful collage for your nursery and a nice memento of their wee little feet! I am actually glad I only did it with one of them – it was rather messy – and we would have needed two adults to contain the mess.

But DO DO IT! RED TED LOVED IT!!!!!!!

So.

Footprint Fish for Kids – Hurray for Fish!

1) Read the book – any fish book for kids will do of course. But we particularly love Hooray for Fish!

2) Get some paints. Some paper and some brushes.

3) Colour your feet and hands with paint and make prints!

4) Wash (yourself).

5) Take a felt tip pen or marker pen and draw fish ontop of  the shapes – your imagination is your limit! (I was looking for a black pen, but only found the red and blue, but they actually work v well!).

6) Cut them out.

 

7) Let the children decorate some more (Red Ted added somes scribbles and dots).

8) Stick on some contrasting paper (I stuck 5 sheets together) & hang.

9) Read the story again at bedtime!

Red Ted was SO CHUFFED when he went to bed and saw his fish. He looked so proud and happy. Am so pleased we did this one today!!!

We have lost more Summer Crafts for Preschoolers (many a lot less messy too.. teehee) for you to browse here:

Have fun making your own Footprint Fish collages! Hooray for Fish! Indeed.