Ocean Art for Toddlers and Preschoolers

As part of the Ocean Unit I created for my toddler this summer, we made a simple ocean art to hang on the wall, using washable paint, a kitchen sponge, and shiny, colorful cut out fish.

Most kiddos love to paint, and I enjoyed showing my toddler how to use a sponge technique for this one. He of course also got his hands dirty and added his own little touch. I also had him add little white paint bubbles with his fingertip after the blue paint dried, and it came out so cute. He absolutely loved looking at it, and especially touching the shiny fish.

Our finished picture!

Follow the simple tutorial below to create your own ocean art.

Things you'll need:

• One sheet of white card stock or thicker paper

• One medium art poster (optional - for the frame)

• Blue washable paint (I used the crayola finger paints and mixed two blue shades.)

• White washable paint (optional)

• One dish sponge

• Scissors

• Glue

• Metallic and/or colored paper

• A permanent marker

Step One:

Pour some blue paint on a paper plate (recommended) or directly on the white paper.

Have your toddler help you push the sponge into the paint and then gently stamp so that you can still see the sponge's texture. This will create a fun underwater bubble effect.

We covered the whole paper except for a little patch of white at the top, which I left to make it look like a little wave, which my sponge is shaped like!

Step Two:

Allow the ocean to dry and have your kiddo dip a little pointer finger into a bit of white paint and make some dots for bubbles.

Step Three:

Print the free fish printable below.

Fish Tracers.pdf

Download PDF • 44KB

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Once they are printed, you have two options, based on the amount of time you have to put into it, and the age group you're working with.

1. Cut and Paste: You can simply color and cut, and glue them on the way they are! This is a good option for older preschoolers who are more independent.

2. Cut, Paste, and Cut again: Cut out the fish you would like to use. Then glue them onto different colored papers. I happened to have a few metallic sheets around, and colored cardstock so that's what I used. I knew my son would love the shiny fish, so I made him a gold seahorse, a shiny blue shark, and silver jellyfish. I then cut around the fish, and then flipped them over to draw the details with a permanent marker. Then I glued them on to the ocean. Important Tip: If you do use one-sided metallic paper like I did, be sure to glue your fish cutouts on the plain white side. See photo below.

   
   

   

Step Four:

Frame your little sea! This step is optional.

I happened to have a black poster lying around so I cut out a 9.75 inch height x 12 inch in width. This measurement is for a standard 8.5 x 11 inch ocean.

The frame I cut from the inside for the window measured 8.2 inches for the height and 10.5 inches for the width.

All done!

Happy Ocean Day!