our homemade OCEAN aquarium

I combined two awesome ideas to make our homemade ocean aquarium.  M, M and I spent an entire morning working on it(I love an activity that inspires that amount of focus!).  Made by Joel kept it simple with this interactive aquarium.  Mommy Labs made a colorful and bright aquarium.  I loved them both so ….

what you need:  cardboard box ~ box cutter ~ thread ~ washers ~ paint ~ markers ~ paper ~ ocean books

I cut holes in the side and the top to let light come in from the sides.  I made a few slits for the sea life to hang. ** I was hoping that the fish would slide back and forth, but they don’t slide very well.  I still love the slits because the kids are able to take the fish out and move them around easily.**

We sat down and looked through a couple of our ocean books. We talked about the colors that represented water.  Little M choose green for the background.

I propped up a book (after M and M agreed on a page of course).  They both chose different Rays to create and spent quite a bit of time working on them.

I was very excited to introduce a new technique to Big M.  When he finished the blue of his Eagle Ray, I suggested he wait for the paint to dry before adding white spots.

Deciding how to hang the sea life was a challenge.

I tried a bent paper clip…it didn’t work at all!

I tried a button…that was better.

The washer was perfect!  I love that I could tie the thread it two places so that our pieces hang nicely.

We added shells.  I hot glued some, and Big M suggested we leave some that could be moved and rearranged.  Such a great idea!

What all day projects have you been working on?

This post is a part of our OCEAN week.