Easy Paper Jellyfish Craft for Preschool and Toddlers
Looking for the perfect, simple jellyfish craft to do with toddlers, preschoolers, or younger kids? Check out our colorful jellyfish craft that’s easy enough for little hands and great for learning about these ocean animals. And all you need is a few simple supplies!
Easy Paper Jellyfish Craft
Our jellyfish craft is a great way to make a fun ocean project while still keeping it pretty simple. The best part is that you can do these cute jellyfish with toddlers all the way up to older children with ease. The steps can be done with your child, or, if they’re old enough, they can do them on their own.
Fine Motor Skills in Crafts
For very young children, using scissors and glue sticks can be frustrating at first, but they’re working on their fine motor skills in the process! Let them take the lead, but offer assistance when they do start to get frustrated. And we promise that through the practice, they’ll be able to do it on their own soon enough.
When to Make This Craft
We make our fun craft when we start our preschool ocean theme unit, but you can make this craft whenever you want! It works as a great craft for the letter J, summer time or anything related to the beach. Jellyfish are also the perfect addition if you’re reading or learning about sea creatures.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Here’s a break down of this easy jellyfish craft including everything that you’ll need to complete the craft. Remember to let your child help with each step even if your final product doesn’t end up looking exactly like ours.
Materials You’ll Need
We found everything we needed at the local dollar store, but you could easily find it at the craft store or online. Here’s everything we used for our jellyfish:
- Different colored construction paper
- Glue
- Scissors
- Optional: Googly eyes
The colors you use for this jellyfish paper craft are up to you. We used purple for the jellyfish body and all different colors for the jellyfish tentacles.
Step 1: Cut Out Your Shapes
Before we started, I drew a half-circle on the purple construction paper for my grandson to cut out. You’ll need the body of the jellyfish along with two white circles and two black circles for the eyes (unless you’re using googly eyes).
Then, you’ll want to help your child cut out long rectangles of different colors. We just cut straight lines along the shorter side of the construction paper.
If you’re nervous about using scissors with little kids or just need more practice, check out all our tips for scissor skills and activities with young kids here.
Step 2: Glue on the Tentacles
Next, flip the body over and glue on the colored tentacles to the back of the jellyfish’s body. Your child can use regular school glue or a glue stick, whatever you have or they’re more comfortable with.
Step 3: Add the Face
Lastly, glue the white circles on for the big eyes. Then, add the smaller black circles on top of that to complete the eyes. And don’t forget to draw on a smile to your cute little jellyfish!
Jellyfish Fun!
We hope this easy craft is a fun way to make a jellyfish for kids of all ages. This is a great ocean craft to add to other ocean themed activities or works well on it’s own. It’s perfect to do as a fun summer craft, too!
More Cute Jellyfish Crafts
If you’re looking for even more jellyfish activities, try this cute jellyfish handprint painting! This is another fun activity to do with younger kids if you want to break out the paint. Check it out here.
Try An Ocean Themed Sensory Bin
If you’re doing a whole ocean unit or just looking for another activity to go with your ocean crafts, try our ocean sensory bin. These are a lot of fun with just a few simple supplies. Check it out here.
