Easy Cardboard Fish Craft for Kids Using Recycled Materials

Sometimes the simplest materials make the best starting point for art.

These colourful fish are made from recycled cardboard and decorated using whatever art and craft materials you already have at home. Draw your own fish shapes, take inspiration from real fish, or use our free printable fish templates to get started.

There’s no single finished fish to copy. Children can experiment with colour, pattern, collage and different materials to create a whole shoal of completely individual fish.

You will need

• Recycled cardboard - delivery boxes and packaging are perfect

• Pencil

• Scissors

• Pens, pencils, crayons or paint

• Glue

• Scraps of paper, tissue paper or other collage materials

• Optional extras such as sequins, stickers or fabric scraps

You really don’t need everything on this list. Part of the fun is looking through the materials you already have and deciding what could become scales, fins or patterns.

1. Choose or draw your fish

Start by drawing a fish shape onto your cardboard. Fish come in an incredible variety of shapes, so there’s plenty of room to experiment - long fish, round fish, tiny fish, enormous fins or even a spiky pufferfish.

Looking at photographs or books about real fish can be a lovely starting point. Notice the shapes, colours, markings and patterns before creating your own. You can also use children’s books with fantastic illustrations, such as Simon Bartram’s picture book Dougal’s Deep-Sea Diary which is full of inspiration.

Prefer a starting shape? Download our free printable fish templates and use them for tracing, colouring or collage.

2. Cut out your cardboard fish

Cut around the outline of your fish. Younger children may need an adult to help with thicker cardboard or more complicated shapes.

Don't worry about making everything perfectly smooth or symmetrical. The slightly wonky edges and visible cardboard are part of the charm.

3. Decorate!

Now for the best bit.

Add scales, stripes, spots, lines and patterns with pens, pencils or paint. Try layering paper or fabric scraps to make collage, or add a few shiny materials for texture.

There’s no need for every child to work towards the same example. You could put out a selection of materials and see where they take the idea.

We ended up making ten completely different fish — from a simple cardboard pufferfish to colourful collaged and patterned designs.

Take the idea further

Once you've made one fish, it can be surprisingly difficult to stop!

Make a whole shoal, look at different species of fish together, investigate pattern and camouflage, use the fish for storytelling or display them as part of an ocean-themed project.

And if you make several, don't throw them back in the sea just yet... In our next activity, we'll show you how to turn your cardboard fish into a hanging fish mobile.