Rainbow Fish Craft

We absolutely adore the book The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister and we have the best rainbow fish craft to go with the book! This is the perfect preschool craft and it comes with a free template too!

RELATED: Fish Crafts for Kids

Rainbow Fish Craft with Free Template

This rainbow fish craft is made with black glue and comes with a free printable template.

You can get the free template at the bottom of the post.

This preschool rainbow fish craft is the perfect companion craft for a study or lesson plan on the Rainbow Fish book by Marcus Pfister. This is perfect for preschool or kindergarten classes.

If your child hasn’t read The Rainbow Fish before, I recommend you watch this live reading of it which includes animation. Older kids will love making this craft by experimenting with the black glue, watercolors and glitter.

What is black glue?

Black glue is glue that is tinted black. You can skip down below for more details on how to make black glue or you can buy it.

We love this craft because each rainbow fish will turn out unique and would make a brilliant board of fish to put on display. The book is well known for its morals about the value of being an individual so this craft is perfect since each rainbow fish will be unique.

Watch the Video Tutorial

Supplies Needed

• White glue or if you’d rather not make your own black glue, you can buy black glitter glue.

• Watercolors or Liquid Watercolors

• White cardstock and colored cardstock

• Silver Glitter

• Black acrylic paint

• FREE Rainbow Fish Template (you can get the template at the bottom of the post)

How to make a Rainbow Fish Craft

1. First, make your black glue: 

Making black glue is simple. You just have to mix acrylic black paint with regular white glue. The key to making black glue is that the paint and glue must be thoroughly mixed.

Add a little bit of paint at a time into the glue until you get the color you’re looking for. It will probably end up being close to 1/4 black paint and 3/4 white glue.  You can use a popsicle stick to stir in the bottle mix it together. You can also shake the bottle to spread the paint around. You will need to use a slightly used bottle in order to fit the black paint inside.

If you’d rather not make your own black glue, you can buy black glitter glue.

Note: You’ll want a small glue bottle with a small nozzle. If you use a bigger nozzle or size glue the glue may pool too much when drying.

2. Print the free template. 

Print off the free Rainbow Fish Template.

You can get the template at the bottom of the post.

3. Apply your black glue. 

Use your black glue to outline your rainbow fish. Try to move quickly but smoothly to avoid pooling the black glue. If you go in a straight line from line to line you won’t get pooling in between the lines. It’s okay if you do though! It’s part of the effect and it will still look great!

TIP: Do not squeeze out too much paint during this step. You want just a light amount or too much of the glue will pool and spread when drying. 

4. Let your black glue dry overnight. 

Once your black glue is dry, it’s time to paint!

Using watercolors, paint the rainbow fish using a mix of different purple, pink, red, greens and blues!

5. Once your watercolor painting is dry, apply your glitter. 

Apply glitter to different scales on the fish.

Fill the scale with glue and then shake your glitter on top. Pick and choose different scales to decorate.

Add some glue lines to the tail and fins.

Shake off any excess glitter.

6. Add a googly eye to the fish.

Glue on a googly eye or kids can draw on an eye.

7. Glue your fish to a colored background and cut out. 

For an optional final step, glue the fish to a piece of colored cardstock or construction paper.

Make sure to check all folders for the confirmation email.

Get the Rainbow Fish Template Here