Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

After making Nemo and Jellyfish lanterns last week and watching the Rainbow Fish musical over the weekend, we are still in the mood for ‘fishes’ and ‘sea creatures’!

And so we made a whole lot of sea animals today! This way, other than colouring the animals, they both get to create their own imaginative underwater adventure!

We used :

– Cartons (I used whatever I could find in my ‘recyclables’ bag : computer speakers’ box, pudding boxes, anything)
– Blue-coloured crepe paper for the ‘background’ (I only have green right now, and so we used that anyway!)
– Crayons, scissors
– Masking tape (if they kids want to ‘stick’ the animals onto the background)

Since I can’t draw out of my ‘own imagination’ (because they’ll sure look like some wonky creatures!), I referred to Anya’s animal book. I drew, cut the shapes out and the kids coloured some of them with crayons too.

We made : rainbow fish (yup, like the one at the musical!), shark, turtle, seal, stingray, crab, seaweed, sea snake, starfish, etc.  The kids basically chose from the book which animals they wanted me to draw.

And this was what we made. A rather ‘crowded’ ocean (that sort of looked like a ‘garden’ because of the green background?)

Another idea :
Put masking tape at the back of the animals (fold it in a way that it’s sticky on both sides) and let the kids stick the sea creatures onto the wall and create their own story! (while we parents sit back and listen to them)

For Vai’s case, I sometimes ask what the fishes in his hands are doing etc (and he’d then tell me) as I hope to encourage ‘verbal’ story-telling (because if not asked, he’d most likely create the story in his head, moving the animals around, making ‘sound effects’ and occasionally saying a few words).

And this is Vai holding onto his shark and Dory (from ‘Finding Nemo’), walking back and forth around our house, saying : “Shark is looking for Nemo … (upon seeing a ‘sleeping’ Nemo) wake up, wake up Nemo … ”

It’s nice to see how a toddler – not just a preschooler – can enjoy some imaginative play too!

Anyway, here’s a video clip of Vai colouring and making his own fish story!

Do have fun creating your very own underwater adventure with your little ones!