Stuffed Fish

These LARGE, stuffed fish were a hit in 3rd grade.  The 'challenge' for these kids were to create an interesting math problem... If you take a fish plus a ...?... what would you get?  Students were taking basketball + fish, pizza + fish, cow + fish... They were inventing a new, interesting, creative fish from the sea. 

I had them draw just the body on the large format paper (no fins or tails).  They had to make two, one for each side of the fish. We used sharpies to help trace the same fish on both sides of the paper.  I encouraged a LARGE, simple shaped body.  They used sharpie outline and crayons to complete this portion of the fish.

They then cut the fish out and created the fins and tail.  I showed how to use most of the construction paper for the fins and tail and not to leave a lot of scrap behind.  Demoing this was very important.  The other part that made this successful was the scrap challenge (see previous post).  Little to no paper was tossed in the trash. 

Students were asked to glue the fish so that they could get their hand in the fishes mouth.  We stuffed the fish the next time they came to art.  I simply used shredded paper from the office.  They finished and we closed the mouth shut with a little glue.

Above we have a lady bug + fish, and below, a lollypop + fish... I think the invention of he fish was the favorite part for the kids, that and seeing them displayed.

So let me just brag about Hassan Elementary's volunteers.  Check out the amazing display above.  This was all done by a parent and our parent liaison.  He did a great job!!! Below, this was an example of the amazing artwork from a parent who volunteered to help the music department with their decorations for a concert.  You can see the hanging fish as decorating the stage too.

Finally... I wanted to share this 'ah-ha' moment.  So I love the look of hanging art from the ceiling and HATE that every kid has to jump up and hit it.  Plus I'm only 5 foot 2 inches, so my 6 foot 5 inch husband gets a honey do list for school to help me accomplish this task.  Then it hit me, I can hang the fish off our second story stair case.  It's easy to bend down and hang art work.... Oh my goodness, they looked great!