Rock Fish!

I saw the book, Only One You, and loved it! I tried painting rock fish with my Girl Scout Brownies...there are only 7 in the troop. It was fun, but didn't have the end result I wanted. I still thought it would be a terrific end-of-the-year project for the Peeps, and then I could put it in their time capsules! Shannon wanted her Rockstars to do it too. So we had to figure out step by step instructions. (Click on the picture for the Amazon link.)

The rocks I used with the Girl Scouts were black craft rocks from Michaels. They were beautiful, but we wanted something more economical. So we bought a bag of landscape rocks. They are assorted sizes, but that worked great! The Peeps helped me sort by size, and then they each chose the rock they wanted! (Have kids put their names and the year on the bottom side of the rock they choose.)

Drawing lines on the rocks with pencil is the first step. Then choose colors and get to the painting part! I didn't have my collection of lids at school, so I was desperate for something that I could put just a dab of paint on. All I could quickly put my hands on was a pack of poker chips. But they worked really well! (Next time, I'll use milk lids!) The Peeps were very focused with their painting. Here they are at the "low" table, the "tall" table, and a regular table. (We love our new seating options!)

After the children painted the first colors, we let them dry. Then we added details after recess. Later in the afternoon, we added the black sharpie outlines. By then, some of the children had lost interest in working on their fish, so I let them choose if they wanted to do the outlines or if they wanted me to. Several of the kids did it themselves! The next morning, we painted the top with a clear coat of nail polish, and wrote our names and the year on the back. (That step really should have been first.)

Here are a few rocks from the Rockstars! Shannon had her kids practice making lips on paper before they drew them on the rocks. I think they look better than mine do! I also love those eyelashes!

We made some printables to go with the project. The kids pretended to "swim" around the room with their rock fish while they found friends to sign the boxes during the "Find a Friend" activity. It was so cute! I made it easy enough for the kindergartners to read themselves (for the most part!). Lots of times, this type of page is too tricky for my Peeps...but they could do this one!

Here are pictures from the TpT set. Each one links to our store. Check it out!