Preschool Crafts

4 Rainbow Fish Crafts for Preschoolers (Easy Ideas)

4 Rainbow Fish crafts for preschoolers, each with a picture and simple steps. Easy ideas for ages 3 to 5 using paper, paint, and glue.

Kindergarten Prep Team
Oct 17, 2026

The shiny scale is the point, so put out foil before you start. Here are four ways to make a rainbow fish craft after the story, with pictures, supplies, and steps: a paper plate fish with tissue scales, a coffee filter fish, and one painted with foil.

A three-year-old stamps with the celery and sticks scales wherever they land. A five-year-old overlaps hers like the picture and saves the foil one for last. Families make these in Ocean Week, and the foil catches the light on the fridge.

Start here: three Rainbow Fish crafts that always work

Coffee filter rainbow fish, an easy Rainbow Fish craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5Coffee filter rainbow fishMarkers and a spray bottle, low messFoil painted paper plate fish, an easy Rainbow Fish craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5Foil painted paper plate fishCrumpled foil does the paintingPaper plate rainbow fish, an easy Rainbow Fish craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5Paper plate rainbow fishThe classic one, scales and all

4 Rainbow Fish crafts, with pictures

Paper plate rainbow fish, an easy Rainbow Fish craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

1. Paper plate rainbow fish

The child cuts a wedge mouth from a paper plate, reuses it as the tail and glues on overlapping tissue paper scales plus one foil scale.

You need: 1 white paper plate, tissue paper squares in a few colours, 1 square of foil, 1 self-adhesive googly eye, glue

How to make it
  1. You cut one pie slice wedge from the side of the plate as an open mouth. Keep the wedge.
  2. Glue the wedge on the opposite side by its point as the tail.
  3. Your child glues tissue squares over the plate and tail, overlapping like scales.
  4. Glue the foil square in the middle as a shiny scale and stick the googly eye above the mouth.
Coffee filter rainbow fish, an easy Rainbow Fish craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

2. Coffee filter rainbow fish

The child tie-dyes a coffee filter with markers and water, then adds a tail, an eye and punched foil scales.

You need: 1 round white coffee filter, washable markers, spray bottle of water, blue paper, foil, 1 googly eye, 1 sheet of light blue paper, glue

How to make it
  1. Your child scribbles the filter with markers and sprays it with water. Let it dry.
  2. Glue the filter flat in the middle of the light blue sheet as the body.
  3. You cut a blue triangle and glue it at one side, point touching the filter, as the tail.
  4. Glue the googly eye at the other end and small foil dots across the body as scales.
Celery stamped rainbow fish, an easy Rainbow Fish craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

3. Celery stamped rainbow fish

The child stamps the cut end of a celery bunch in different colours to print curved scales on a fish shape.

You need: 1 celery bunch base, paint of choice, white paper, light blue paper, 1 small square of foil, 1 googly eye, glue stick

How to make it
  1. You cut a large fish from white paper. Your child glues it on the light blue sheet.
  2. Your child dips the cut end of the celery in paint and stamps over the fish so the arcs overlap like scales. Let it dry.
  3. Glue the foil square among the scales as the shiny scale.
  4. Glue the googly eye near the head.
Foil painted paper plate fish, an easy Rainbow Fish craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

4. Foil painted paper plate fish

The child paints a paper plate with a crumpled ball of foil, then glues on a tail, fins and an eye.

You need: 1 paper plate, blue, green and yellow paint, aluminium foil, orange paper, 1 googly eye, glue

How to make it
  1. You cut a triangle out of one side of the plate as the mouth. Glue that triangle on the opposite side as the tail.
  2. Crumple a ball of foil. Your child dips it in paint and dabs it all over the plate. Let it dry.
  3. Cut 2 orange fins and glue them on the top and bottom.
  4. Stick the googly eye near the mouth.
Free · 30 questions · about 4 minutes Is your child on track for kindergarten? Answer 30 questions about what your child does today, and you get a report like this one: Every area at a glance: strong, on track, or worth a little time The one or two areas to focus on first Simple things to do at home for each area How many months you have until kindergarten starts Get my child's free report → Example kindergarten readiness report with a bar for each area: language, social-emotional, math, thinking, fine motor and literacy

Scales, foil and glue: setting up a rainbow fish craft

Pre-cut the tissue paper into squares and keep them in a bowl by color. Overlapping scales from the tail forward is the one thing to show the child before you step back. One foil scale goes on last, wherever the child wants it.

The coffee filter rainbow fish is marker and a spray bottle, so it is the least messy and a three can do the coloring and spraying alone. Cutting the fish shape, the tail and the punched foil scales is adult work.

For the celery stamped rainbow fish, cut the celery bunch an inch or two from the base and let it dry a few minutes before dipping. Each color gets its own plate so the scales stay bright.

Hang the finished fish in a window or tape them in a row along the hallway as a school of fish. The foil catches the light.

Free · 30 questions · about 4 minutes Before you go: see where your child is for kindergarten A report with every area at a glance, what to focus on first, and things to do at home. Get my child's free report →

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