Japanese Fish Kite

What You Do:

1. Tell your child about Japanese fish kites, called koinobori in Japan. In Japan, these kites, which look like fish-shaped windsocks, are used to celebrate a Japanese holiday “Children’s Day” on May 5th.
2. Help your child to cut the bottom off a large white paper cup.
3. The smaller end of the cup, where the bottom once was, will be the fish’s mouth. Let your child draw the fish’s eye with a pencil. When he's happy with how he has drawn the eye, he can draw over the pencil with a permanent marker.
4. For the fish’s gills, your child can draw them on the cup first with pencil and then with permanent markers in various colors. Another option is to let him glue blue or green sequins on the cup to make a fish scales pattern. Or do both! Have him leave some room at the large end of the cup for stapling crepe paper streamers.
5. Have your child cut lengths of crepe paper streamers. Help him staple the streamers to the other end of the fish, near the lip of the cup.
6. Help your child use the hole punch to put a hole under the fish’s eye and another hole across from that one, also near the cup’s bottom edge.
7. Your child can cut a length of string. Help him knot each end of the string around the punched holes.
8. Your child can fly the kite by holding the string and running with it held up behind him on a windy day. He can also hang it up on a covered porch or inside as a windsock decoration. Happy Children’s Day!