* Homemade Japanese Fish Kite Fun!

"C" and I decided to make our own 

Japanese Fish Kite 

(windsock) last month and I'm finally posting photos. 

We made a batch of these kites with some of her little 

3 and 4 year old friends during our Mommy and Me Mini-Ocean Fun

Art Camps here at our house in June. 

I started with a large rectangle 

of white paper, folded in half lengthwise (hot dog fold).

I trimmed a (V) tail shape at the bottom,

not something for 3 year olds to do, but totally do-able if you're making with older kids!

Then, we opened it up and added wavy lines

with markers (I prefer sharpies)

and zig-zag lines to the body as scales.

Drew two circles for fish eyes.

Then, they got to work coloring their fish (still opened flat)

with dot-a-dot markers and watercolors.

Note: Learn from my mistake! 

I used my cool, semi-translucent,  Japanese printmaking paper

but that was a big mistake... when the little kids started watercolor-ing

on it, it couldn't take the massive quantities of water they used 

and started to rip.... I should have used heavier white drawing paper

(and supervised brush wiping more carefully!)

When the fish were dry,

we added a line of glue

along the open edge of the paper

(to the belly of the fish!)

and folded it over to  make it like a cylinder.

Don't glue the tail shut--

leave it open so the air can blow through!

To reinforce the mouth and keep it 

open in an "O" shape,

you could glue a strip of paper but I cheated and just used a strip

of white masking tape!

We added a piece of yarn  to the mouth of the fish kite,

like a basket handle....

perfect for hanging in trees and holding onto while you run!

Happy Kite (making) Flying!

Fondly,

pink and green mama

MaryLea