Create & Learn With a Jellyfish Craft

This Paper Plate Jellyfish Craft is a simple activity that helps children strengthen fine motor skills, practice following directions, make creative choices, and build communication skills. As children paint, cut, glue, and create, they have countless opportunities to learn through play while expressing their creativity.

Materials Needed

• 1 paper plate, cut in half
• Blue paint (or your child's favorite color)
• Paintbrush
• Child-safe scissors
• Hole punch
• Ribbon, tissue paper, yarn, or streamers
• Glue
• Googly eyes
• Marker

Instructions

Step 1: Paint the Jellyfish Body

Paint the back of the half paper plate and set it aside to dry. Using the paintbrush will help your child practice their fine motor skills, and finger painting can be a great source of sensory exploration.

Step 2: Prepare the Tentacles

Cut ribbon, tissue paper, yarn, or streamers into strips for the jellyfish tentacles. Using the scissors will help your child gain hand strength, and choosing the materials they want will help them express their creativity.

Step 3: Attach the Tentacles

Use the hole punch to punch holes along the flat side of the half paper plate. Then, thread the tentacles through and tie them to attach. Poking the tentacles into the holes and tying them can build fine motor skills and frustration tolerance. During this step, you can practice staying calm, problem-solving, and trying again when things don't work the first time.

Step 4: Add Eyes and Decorations

Attach googly eyes, draw on a smile, and decorate the jellyfish however you'd like. This is a great time for your child to show off their creative side!

Building Communication Skills

Craft time is a very natural opportunity to start conversation and practice language development. You can start by making comments about the craft, and start engaging your child in conversation by asking them questions.

Try making observations like:

• You're painting the jellyfish blue.
• These tentacles are soft, and the other ones are rough.
• Your jellyfish looks happy!

Try asking questions like:

• What color should we use next?
• What should we name our jellyfish?
• Where does your jellyfish live?

Click here to read more about building communication skills.

Communicating Wants and Needs

Craft time is also a great way to help your child to communicate their wants and needs. You can start by meeting your child where they are, and help them work to expand from there. You can start by asking what they need.

• If your child is not using words, they might point at the blue paint. You respond by saying "blue" or "blue paint" as you hand it to them.
• If your child is using single words, they might say "blue" or "paint." You can respond by saying "blue paint" or "you need the paint."
• If your child is using short phrases, they might say "I want paint" or "Help me, please." You can respond by saying "You want the blue paint. Do you need the paintbrush, too?" or "You need help opening the blue paint?"

To help your child practice communicating their wants and needs, you can create a problem that needs to be solved and point it out to them. Try saying:

• Oh no, we're out of ribbon.
• The paint is closed. What can you say?
• Your ribbon fell off. What do you need?

You can also model this skill to show them how to ask for help. Try saying:

• I'm out of blue paint. Can you pass it to me?
• My ribbon fell off. Can you help me put it back?
• I can't find the googly eyes. Will you help me look for them?

Playing Pretend

When you're done building your jellyfish, you can play pretend to practice more creativity and social skills. Try saying:

• How many tentacles does your jellyfish have?
• What does your jellyfish like to eat?
• My jellyfish is new to the ocean. Can you show it how to swim?