Fingerprint Fish

What You Need:

• Black drawing paper, 8.5” x 11”
• Brightly colored tempera paint
• Paint dishes, or a paper plate
• Paintbrushes
• Crayons
• Newspaper

What You Do:

1. Ask your child what type of fish live in the ocean and what they look like.
2. Set out some paint in dishes and have your child practice dipping different parts of her fingertips, entire fingers, thumbprints and the sides of her hands into the paint and then pressing a print onto the newspaper. This will help guide her as to what shapes different parts of her hands can create.
3. Let her make as many prints of fish as she likes using all different colors directly onto the black paper. She can test print shapes on newspaper to make sure the consistency of the paint is correct for the outcome she wants.
4. Use the length of fingers to create jellyfish. Or, use multiple pinkie fingertip prints to create a school of fish.
5. Allow the paint to completely dry.
6. Go back in with wax crayons to add in fins, eyes, gills and any other information that creates a beautiful, brilliant habitat for deep sea fish.