Easy Toddler Jellyfish Art Activity

Inside: Put together a simple toddler jellyfish art activity with a few simple materials. A fun addition to the ocean theme that creates a nice classroom display!

One of our favorite themes for May – our last month of the school year – is the beach and ocean.

CLICK HERE to see how we’ve set up our classroom for the beach and ocean theme!

We explore different sizes, shapes and textures of shells, talk about what we see when we go to the beach, sing ocean songs, and get crafty with some ocean art activities.

Many years ago my older class created some jellyfish using plastic bowls. I wanted to do something similar with my toddlers, but it was important that they do the work. (I try hard to have few teacher directed art activities for this age group.)

The result was a batch of simple, colorful jellyfish that looked festive hanging in our classroom!

It’s All About the Process

Before I share how we made these colorful jellyfish, I want to stress the importance of keeping activities as child-led as possible.

I want the work to belong to the children, not me.

The only part I had to prep was cutting the streamers.

I did need to stay close as the children attached the streamers to the bowls, but once I showed them how to find the end of each streamer and press it into the glue, they were able to do it themselves. Were they perfect? Nope. Some streamers were pressed a few inches from the edge, and I let it go.

It’s the process that counts, even when doing more of a crafty activity like this.

Spread it Out

I am a big fan of spreading out an art activity over the course of days if there are multiple steps involved.

Here are some examples:

Spring Suncatchers

Frogs On A Log

Marble-Painted Butterflies

Spring Chicks

For this toddler jellyfish art activity, the bowls are painted one day and the streamers are attached the next.

I’ve found this particularly helpful for younger children with shorter attention spans, too.

Hang It Up!

When the jellyfish are finished, add some ribbon and hang! These make a nice classroom display for your ocean theme.

Easy Toddler Jellyfish Art Activity

What we used:

Paper bowls
Assorted colored streamers
Blue and purple tempera paint
White glue
Paintbrushes

Step One: Paint the Bowl

Pour paint into containers and place on a table along with paper bowls and brushes.

Have the children paint the outsides of the bowls.

Toddlers have short attention spans, so they might not cover all of the space. No worries!

3-Dimensional Fun

Young children love to paint 3-dimensional objects, such as these paper bowls. They have to think about how to get to all sides as they navigate the paint brush.

Some 3-dimensional activities we’ve loved:

Let the bowls dry completely. I like to spread this activity out into two days.

Step Two: Adding the Streamers (Tentacles)

Cut streamers approximately 12 – 15″ in length. They don’t need to be precise and you can add even more (or less).

Pour glue into individual containers so that you have one for each child and add a paintbrush.

Flip the painted bowl upside down and show your toddler how to brush glue around the inside of the bowl, close to the rim. (If they want to go crazy and glue all of the surface, no big deal. Extra fine motor! You just want to make sure there is glue around the edges so that the streamers will stick.)