Use household items to create rainbow fish. Scribble over an unused coffee filter with different-colored washable markers. Squirt water over the colored filter with a medicine dropper and allow the colors to run together. Cut a fish shape from the filter and glue aluminum foil triangles and fish accents to it in a craft idea from DLTK Teach. You can also cover an empty toilet paper tube with a large piece of pink construction paper, alining the top edge with the roll's top edge. There should be a length of paper at the bottom, not supported by the roll. Cut slits in the excess paper to make eight octopus legs and draw a face with markers to create the Rainbow Fish's friend.
In an activity from Kideas, cut one 3-inch triangle from the edge of a paper plate and trim two thinner triangles from each side of the cut out triangle. Paste the tip of the main triangle to the opposite edge of the plate for a fish tail while the removed triangle acts as the mouth. Glue the two thin triangles to the top and bottom of the plate to look like fins. Have the children cover the fish with various-colored pieces of construction paper and be sure to include pieces of metallic wrapping paper or aluminum foil for the shiny scales. Create the activity using smaller snack plates and hang them from the ceiling to create an ocean theme in your room.
Cut two 12-inch long fish shapes from two pieces of felt. Cover each side with the soft side of self-adhesive hook-and-loop sheeting. Using fabric glue or a stapler, connect the mouth side, the top and the tail edges of the fish together, leaving an opening at the bottom to create a felt fish hat. Cut out and decorate card stock scales, fins and a tail and adhere the scratchy hook-and-loop sections to the back of the paper. Encourage the children to secure the paper fish parts to the hat and retell the story by trading scales with friends in the class.
Cut a construction paper fish from white paper and draw facial features, the tail and fins. Squirt different colored water onto the paper using inexpensive spray bottles. As one adaptation, take the children outside and use a spring-loaded clothespin to secure each child's fish to the school yard fence, if applicable, or set them on the ground. When the fish are dry, brush glue onto only a few spots on the fish body and sprinkle silver glitter to create the rainbow fish's shiny scales. Adapt the activity by folding a piece of card stock in half before cutting a fish shape to create a card. Decorate it using the same technique and write a friendship message inside.