Jellyfish are one of the underappreciated animals of the ocean. Like Killer Whales, they get a bad rap as being a mean animal, but when you look at them, they really are beautiful! There is such a variety in the colors, shapes, and sizes of jellyfish, they are just an art project waiting to happen. While I plan on creating an entire Activity Plan centered around Jellyfish in the future, for now we incorporated them into our Ocean Week Activity Plan. This project is perfect for toddlers and bigger kiddos alike, allowing for creative expression and learning. Let’s dive right into how to make this Jellyfish craft for toddlers: the Jellyfish Mobile.
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Materials:
- Dyed coffee filters
- Markers, glitter, etc for decorating
- Scissors
- Glue
- Optional: jars or cups to dry jellyfish on
- Stick or hanger for mobile (paint stirrer works great!)
- String
How to Make the Jellyfish Mobile:
First, dye your coffee filters.
You can see how to do this here. This is a fun activity to do all in itself. Do this a day ahead of time. If you just want white jellyfish or would rather decorate with markers, skip this step!
Next, Decorate the Body of the Jellyfish.
You can use glitter, markers, stickers, whatever your creative toddler can think of to decorate the jellyfish body.
Using a paintbrush to apply liquid glue helps minimize the mess.
Then, make the tentacles.
If you are doing this project with a toddler, then I would recommend cutting out the tentacles while they are decorating the body or beforehand. Bigger kids with better scissor skills may be able to do this themselves.
Cut a coffee filter in a spiral shape for the tentacles. This makes them twist when the jellyfish is hanging up. Cut out enough tentacles to fill out the bottom of you jellyfish. You can make some long and some short for visual interest.
Once the tentacles are cut out, they can also be decorated. We added some glitter and sequins to a few for an extra sparkle!
Now assemble the Jellyfish!
Once all the pieces are dry and decorated, you can put the jellyfish together.
We glued 3 “body” coffee filters together to add some depth and extra frills, but you can just have a single body.
Glue the tentacles to the bottom of the body. Hold it up as you work to see how they look and how many you want to add.
Allow the Jellyfish to dry before adding them to the mobile.
We set our jellyfish on the top of jars and cups to dry. This allowed the tentacles to hang down so they didn’t get stuck on the body crooked.
Allow plenty of time for the glue to dry. You will be handling them quite a bit while making the mobile, so you want them firmly assembled.
Last, Add the Jellyfish to the Mobile.
Simply attach the string to your stick and then attach the string to the jellyfish.
We used fishing line since it is clear, but any string, yarn, or ribbon could be used.
To attach the string to the jellyfish, I used a small needle to thread the fishing line through the top of the body and then looped it over the stick. We also added a little tape to the string on the stick to ensure it would stay in place.
Staggering the height of the jellyfish will allow them all to be seen and move freely.
We hung the finished mobile in Little Miss’ room so she can look at them all the time. She loves the tentacles and they are really beautiful to look at!
If you have any questions or comments about the Jellyfish Mobile, feel free to add them to the comments below. We hope you loved this project as much as we did! And stay tuned for an entire Activity Plan about Jellyfish!
If you loved this project, check out our other Ocean projects here:
