This paper plate rainbow fish craft is inspired by the beautiful storybook “The Rainbow Fish” written by Marcus Pfister. The Rainbow fish book is based on the concept of friendship and sharing and comes with beautiful glittery pictures of the rainbow fish.
We made our blue paper plate fish with a small open mouth that gives it a 3d look. This makes it a fun craft to do with preschoolers, kindergarteners, and school-age kids. My 5-year-old absolutely enjoyed making this fish craft with me, and she made one in her favorite color, pink.
This adorable rainbow fish is a great book-themed summer craft to add to your under the sea crafts list. If you are looking for more ocean crafts, you may also want to check out our paper jellyfish craft and egg carton shark craft.

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post at no cost to you.
Supplies you need to make a 3d paper plate rainbow fish craft
- Three paper plates
- Googly eye
- Paint. (We used acrylic paint)
- Scissors
- Pencil
- PVA Glue
- Silver Glitter paper
How do you make a rainbow fish out of paper plates?
Step 1-Get two paper plates, one small and one big
To make our paper plate fish craft, we used two paper plates. One big and one small.

Step 2-Glue them together and cut out the fins and tail
Take the smaller paper plate and apply glue inside it around the rim. We used PVA glue for this.
Now stick it inside the bigger paper plate such that the outer rims are facing each other on one edge.
Once the glue is fully dry, draw thin lines for the fins and tail on the bigger paper plate’s rim using a pencil. Drawing these lines will make it easy for kids to cut them out.
Using scissors, carefully cut out the fins and tail along the lines we just drew.

Once the fins and tail are cut out, you will get the shape of a fish as below.

Step 3-Paint it and cut out the mouth of the 3D paper plate rainbow fish
Time to paint the paper plate. We used acrylic paint for this part. (The paper plates may turn soggy if you use watercolor.)
We used dark blue color for our fish with some purple color on the fin and tail to match the fish in our Rainbow Fish book. Kids can choose any color and try their own color combinations. If you have enough paint, you can choose to paint both sides of the paper plate fish, although not really needed.
Once the paint is fully dry, cut out a small V shape in front of the fish to make a mouth. Carefully unglue the two ends of the mouth a little bit and fold them outwards to form the lips. If you think it may tear your paper plate, you may avoid this ungluing part.

Step 4-Stick a googly eye and rainbow scales
Stick a googly eye on the paper plate fish.
Let’s give it some rainbow scales now!
Grab a third paper plate and paint inside the outer rim with your favorite rainbow colors. Once the paint dries, cut small circles or oval shapes out of the painted parts to make the scales.
Similarly, cut out some scales from silver glitter paper.
Time to stick the rainbow fish scales! We slightly bent our paper plate scales outwards before sticking them along with the glitter scales on the fish body to give it a 3d look.

Step 5-Paint the lips
Our rainbow fish has a small open mouth with lips folded outwards. Let’s paint it now. We colored all 4 sides of the lips with pink paint.

Wait for the paint to dry and your adorable paper plate rainbow fish craft is ready!

We added some shells and transparent beads to get an “under the sea” theme.

What can you make with paper plates?
Not only this rainbow fish craft but there are also plenty of other crafts you can make with paper plates. Check out some of our favorites.
Paper plate dancing sun, fun summer craft for kids
Merry go-round craft, to add to your amusement park-themed crafts.
Cherry blossom art for kids, beautiful spring craft.
Paper plate garden and moving bee
4th of July paper plate wreath
35 easy paper plate crafts, huge collection of fun paper plate crafts.
Connect with us!
Follow us on Instagram , Pinterest and Facebook for more fun craft ideas!
Leave a Reply