Make ocean paintings with foil fish!

Even though we are not traveling to the beach, summer seems like a great time to do ocean type things. Gresham and Owen are really into sharks and fish and oceans right now, so we did some under the sea artwork!

These paintings were SO easy to do, and any age child can get a good result with this project.

Materials needed:

  • Cereal box
  • Aluminum foil
  • Scissors
  • Paint (we used acrylic)
  • Paintbrushes

Step 1: First, we painted a piece of cereal box cardboard with blue, white, and a little green. We mixed the colors right on the cardboard so that we would get big strokes of color.

Make some ocean paintings with foil fish!

We used acrylic paints because I like the colors and the way they look the best. If you use acrylics, make sure that your kids wear an old shirt or cover up with an apron! Acrylic does not wash out.

Step 2: Cut fish, eels (the boys both wanted one), ocean plants, and anything else you want out of aluminum foil. I did all the cutting, since foil is a little tricky to cut on without wrinkling it all up. Kids ages 8+ could probably handle it.

Make under the sea paintings with foil fish!

Step 3: Paint your fish and ocean life, and let everything dry.

Painting on foil is really interesting and a fun change from paper. Some of the foil showed through on our fish, which gave them a fun glittery look. We also used some glitter paint on our fish.

Step 4: Assemble your paintings! I used Elmer’s glue (the clear kind) to hold everything together.

Here is Owen’s (age 4):

Make an ocean painting with foil fish!

And Gresham’s (age 6):

Make an ocean painting with foil fish!

And mine (age 34 🙂 )

Make an ocean painting with foil fish!

Here are more great art ideas for kids:

7 Comments

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  1. Catherine Jun 26, 2013

    Thank you for your inspirations. Being a mother of 3 boys myself (11, 5, 1) this helps a lot along with pinterest!!

    Reply
  2. sarahelisabeth Jun 27, 2013

    We must try this. My youngest is interested in the sea and sea creatures. His paintings tend to end up being covered with paint so this would work really well.

    Reply
  3. Marnie Jun 27, 2013

    Love this art project!

    Reply
  4. Mary Catherine Jun 27, 2013

    Such a cool project! We'll definitely have to try it. :)

    Reply
  5. Viki Jul 5, 2013

    You mentioned using a cereal box, but do you think that poster board would work as well? My family doesn't eat too much cereal due to gluten issues. Thanks.

    Reply
    1. Sarah Jul 5, 2013

      Yes, poster board would probably work!

      Reply
  6. Nancy Aug 29, 2013

    we are making a "Creation Book" with crafts for each day "God Created" (From the God's Little Explorer's Curriculum for PreSchool) I think this will be a great idea for the page in the book about God created the fish and birds,
    thanks,
    love your postings....my 3 1/2 yr old boy loves them as well:)

    Reply
  7. Abinisha Jun 12, 2016

    Its very very useful Article. You are rightly guided us . Teaching Our Kid Is Nowadays are Very Challenging...So we have to teach them and keep them updated. Recently i searched for a new type of teaching like, teach our kids via app so i am collecting app... recently i got this app.This Learn Underwater application, will help the kids to distinguish between different aquatic species like sea horse, whale, angel fish and octopus.
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ajax.underwater

    Reply

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