This goldfish craft is perfect for brightening up rainy afternoons or adding a splash of color to classroom activities! Keep little hands busy while young learners strengthen fine motor skills, practice following directions, and even boost early storytelling abilities. Plus, it will encourage kids to imagine their goldfish swimming through colorful adventures!
Ready to swim into more crafting adventures after these goldfish projects? Don’t forget to check out our other animal crafts for kids!
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Paper Goldfish Craft
This adorable paper goldfish craft is a fun, colorful way for kids to practice cutting, pasting, and enhance finger movement and control.
With bold shapes, big cartoon eyes, and wavy fins, it’s easy to make and full of personality! It’s a great addition to ocean-themed lessons or storytime, keeping little hands busy and engaged.
Supplies
- Colored cardstock or construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Goldfish Template (click the “click here to get your freebies” image at the end of the post)
Directions
Start by downloading and printing the template. Once the template is printed, gather the materials for this fun activity. Get those scissors ready, and let’s help the kids bring this goldfish to life!
Grab the yellow tail fin and glue it to the back of the orange body piece. Your goldfish is just starting to take shape!
Next up is the top fin! Go ahead and glue it to the back, right above the body.
Take the yellow side fin and help your little one glue it below the orange body piece. Press it down gently and say, “Swish, swish!”, because now your goldfish is ready to paddle through the water!
Let’s add some personality! Grab one paper eye and glue it just below the eyebrow area on the face.
Next, take the other eye and help your little one glue it at the edge of the orange body piece, lining it up with the first eye. Watch as the goldfish face comes together with that adorable look kids love!
Finish off your goldfish with a pop of color! Grab the pink cheek piece and glue it below the eye. It makes your goldfish look extra cheerful and ready to swim!
Can’t get enough of this project? We have plenty more to choose from in our treasure trove of paper plate crafts for kids!
Paper Plate Fish Craft For Kids
Pet Themed Unit For Kids
Want to create a themed unit around this craft? We’ve got lots of ideas to get you started.
Books are a great way to get even further into a theme! On top of that, reading to kids helps them develop a stronger vocabulary and helps them learn to focus. It’s a win-win situation! Try out some of these cool books about space:
Can I Be Your Dog? – This is the cutest storybook about a dog named Arfy who’s a homeless dog. Follow his journey to finding the right family to adopt him!
Strictly No Elephants – When a boy and his pet elephant are denied entrance to a special club, they set out to create their own all-inclusive pet club! This is a great story of being a true friend!
If You Give A Cat A Cupcake – Kids who love the classic If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, will love this cat version! See all the silly things this cat needs!
Easy Pet Crafts
Fish Bowl Paper Plate Craft – Create an entire underwater world using a simple paper plate as the base. While painting and assembling their miniature water worlds, the kids practice cutting different shapes and building their own fish bowl with creativity.
The finished fish bowls make wonderful decorations that will get them curious about fish habitats and marine creatures for extra learning fun!
Related: Handprint Dog Craft
Dog Toilet Paper Roll Craft – Get ready for some tail-wagging adventure with this project that turns an ordinary toilet paper roll into an adorable puppy.
Folding, cutting, and assembling the different dog features helps strengthen hand muscles and improves coordination. Complete with floppy ears, a sweet little face, and a wagging tail, this toilet roll dog becomes an instant companion for imaginative play adventures.
Mouse Handprint Craft – Capture those precious little hands with this DIY that combines art with a keepsake!
As kids carefully cut around their traced hand and add the mouse features, they practice precision and control. The finished mice make adorable keepsakes that show how small those hands used to be.
Cat Puppet Craft – Little ones get to decorate a lunch-size paper bag with triangular ears and a friendly feline face.
The puppet design allows the bag opening to become the cat’s mouth, which opens and closes. It’s perfect for playtime and storytime, helping them boost their creativity, imagination, and verbal communication skills.
Printable Pet Activities For Preschoolers
These pet pattern block mats are an excellent screen-free activity that combines creativity with problem-solving! Kids will place colorful wooden or plastic pattern blocks onto printed outlines to complete colorful pictures of cats, dogs, fish, and other beloved pets.
As little fingers position each shape where it belongs, they develop spatial awareness, recognize geometric shapes, and strengthen focus.
These adorable hedgehog tracing worksheets are cozy, no-prep activities to help young learners strengthen their pencil grip and get them ready for writing. Each page features sweet hedgehogs alongside paths for tracing—from simple straight lines to more challenging curves and zigzags!
Color By Number Fish Printables
Hop into these frog worksheets that cleverly disguise practice as play, as kids focus on the frog theme while strengthening letter recognition.
Perfect for younger learners, this printable pack makes handwriting practice more exciting, so they can master writing the uppercase and lowercase Ff.
For a colorful, creative experience, check out Fun-A-Day’s pet art for preschoolers. Open-ended art projects like these are fantastic for encouraging creativity, fine motor development, and emotional expression. Plus, kids feel extra proud when they see their very own pet art masterpiece displayed at home!
Share With Us
Did you make this activity with your kids or students? We’d love to feature them on our social media!
For a chance to have your child’s project featured, simply snap a picture of the completed project and post it to our Facebook page, email it to us directly by clicking here, or use #simpleeverydaymom on your social media!
Paper Goldfish Craft
Materials
- Colored cardstock or construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Goldfish Template
Instructions
- Download the template, print it, and cut out all the pieces.
- Begin by attaching the tail fin to the back of the body.
- Next, place the top fin on the top and back of the body and secure it.
- Then, position the side fin near the bottom of the body, so half off it hangs off the body.
- Attach one eye just below the eyebrow.
- Add the second eye by gluing it to the back and left side of the face, so only the front part is peeking out.
- Finally, place the cheek below the eye area to complete the face.
Free Goldfish Craft Template
Sam is the crafter and founder of Simple Everyday Mom. She has been featured in Oprah Mag, Good Housekeeping, The Spruce Crafts, Country Living, The Bump and more. Read more.
Dotsy
Monday 7th of July 2025
Goldfish template please
Sam
Thursday 10th of July 2025
Of course! All you need to do is click the “Click Here To Get Your Freebie” image at the end of the post and then enter your email in the form and the link will be sent to you. Or if you’re already a subscriber, when you enter your email in the form, it’ll automatically redirect you to the download page ◡̈
reign
Tuesday 17th of June 2025
nice craft for kids
Sam
Tuesday 17th of June 2025
Thanks! Hope the kids have a blast making it!