Thursday, July 26, 2012

Coffee Filter Jellyfish

"What ocean animal has no brain, no heart, no bones, no eyes, and no ears?" That's how I always start off teaching about jellyfish. It's fun listening to the children's responses! On Monday, we made our own Jewels of the Sea. The kids started off by coloring a coffee filter.
Then before spraying it with water, I put another coffee filter underneath. The color transferred to the second filter.
When dry, the kids glued on strips of crepe paper to the middle of one of the filters. (I cut the crepe paper into thinner strips. You could also use tissue paper.)
I also found some shiny ribbon so I cut that up as well.

When they were done gluing those on I stapled it to the other coffee filter and stuffed it with some toilet paper!
They are now hanging from our ceiling, looking absolutely beautiful!


The kids pretend their parents are getting stung when they brush up against them at drop-off and pick-up!
We also made very simple jellyfish by coloring the top part and adding curling ribbon. I hung those on our wall next to our sharks.




Fun Fact: Although jellyfish don't have eyes, some have eye spots which can detect light.

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11 comments:

Unknown said...

So cute Besty!! I am pinning this and can't wait to try it.

Unknown said...

Those jelly fish look amazing. i may have to try that with my kids.

Rebecca said...

These look really effective. I love the pattern the. Odours create.

Thanks for linking to the Sunday showcase.

Carrie said...

Oh, how fun!! We will definitely be giving this a try. We are going to be doing some underwater crafts after we finish our bugs!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!

Ashley said...

We are planning to make some of these this week for our mermaid party this weekend! :)

Mrs. P said...

love these! Just saw them on Pinterest today and, since I am always looking for artsy projects, was immediately drawn to them--I think I'm going to use these when my students study the Modern artist Dale Chihuly:
http://www.chihuly.com/
These remind me of some of his pieces. So great! Thank you for posting this idea. Mrs. P @ www.createartwithme.blogspot.com

Liz said...

Loved the jelly fish but I seem to face obstacles in doing this! Coffee filter papers here are folded triangular so I couldn't do the circle. When we coloured in felt pen the water didn't run!
So sadly not a successful exercise. Will keep experimenting to see how we can achieve your results!

Betsy said...

Sorry for your troubles, Liz! If you don't have washable markers, you can use droppers with colored water. We did that for our desert sunsets. You just need food coloring and water and you get the same gorgeous results! Good luck!

http://tippytoecrafts.blogspot.com/2011/08/desert-sunsets.html

Liz said...

Thank you Betsy!! I will keep hunting for some suitable circular absorbent paper!! Just LOVE the effects!

Unknown said...

My preschool class loved doing these today! Thanks for the idea. What did you find what was the best way to hang them?

Betsy said...

I slightly opened up a paperclip and poked a small hole down through the top layer coffee filter, then poked another hole back up. (Just like sewing with a needle, you poke down then come back up). I tied a string to the other end of the paper clip and hung the string from the ceiling. They actually held just fine without ripping, but you could always put a small piece of scotch tape across the top between the two poked holes to make it stronger. Hope that makes sense! It's kind of hard to describe. Glad the kids enjoyed making the jellyfish!