Jellyfish Craft

When my girls pop inside to escape the summer heat they often choose some sort of crafting or painting activity. While we were at the library last week we happened to read a book about jellyfish, so this was a fun jellyfish craft to make after reading together one afternoon. Use it at home or in the classroom for a J is for Jellyfish theme or summer activity.

Get a full week of ocean theme lesson plans for

Home Preschool or your Preschool Classroom.

Materials

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Tempera paint
Paper
Wide toothed comb
Q-tips
Books About Jellyfish (optional)
- Jellyfish (A Day in the Life: Sea Animals)
- Peanut Butter and Jellyfish

Make Your Own Jellyfish Craft

Before we got started we read our books and searched for images of jellyfish in our nonfiction text and on Google images. We made observations, and the girls chose which colors of paint to use for their own jellyfish.

To begin we placed two colors of paint toward the top center of our paper. Then the girls used a comb to drag the paint a bit and create the top of the jellyfish. They loved watching how the colors mix together.

Then we used a q-tip to create the tentacles of the jellyfish by dragging paint downward.

And although jellyfish don’t technically have eyes, the girls insisted that ours did need to have eyes. While I would have preferred to stick to the scientific facts, I do actually think their little jellyfish eyes are adorable.

If you’re teaching in a classroom or you have a large display wall at home, you could add these jellyfish to a mural project about ocean life. It would be beautiful!

Get a Full Week of Ocean Theme Learning and Play

Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.

This set includes active hands-on learning ideas and the following printables:

1) Shark Dice Game (color and black/white)
2) Whale Dice Game (color and black/white)
3) Starfish Sorting and Patterning Cards
4) Ocean Letter Matching Puzzles
5) Ocean Life Number Cards 0 to 35
6) Ocean Family Counting Sets for Numbers 1-10
7) Sea Life Cards (for counting, patterning, and sorting)
8) Ocean Roll and Graph Game
9) Sea Life Word Building Cards
10) Sea Life Syllable Sort Activity