At a Glance
This Build an Anglerfish craft has preschool, kindergarten and other young learners cutting out the pieces and sticking them together to create their own glowing deep-sea creature. The hands-on activity strengthens scissor skills, fine motor control and concentration, while sparking curiosity about the strange and fascinating animals that live in the deepest parts of the ocean. Color and black-and-white templates are both included.
Way down in the darkest part of the ocean, where sunlight can’t reach and everything feels a little mysterious, a tiny glow appears in the distance… Is it a star? A torch down here? Or wait, is it this build an anglerfish craft?
Whether you’re studying sea creatures, or just want a fun, creative printable craft, this activity is sure to keep your little ones hooked from start to finish.
This simple activity is great for developing your child’s cutting and sticking skills, and an awesome chance to practice some pencil control and fine motor skills as well!
And this lovely cut and paste craft is brilliant for young children to use because it’s so simple for them to put together!
There’s a color and a plain template – so your little ones can choose the colors and decorate their cute little anglerfish as they wish.
If you’re a teacher, this simple craft could also make an brilliant ocean themed activity for the classroom or a super craft for World Aquatic Animal Day (April 3rd).
Other cut and paste crafts you may want to check out:
Or you can browse all the other printable cut and paste crafts here.
What Skills Can Your Children Learn And Practice?
When making this anglerfish, your children will have the chance to practice and develop some skills such as:
- Cutting Skills – if you feel they’re ready, you can let them have a go at cutting out the pieces all by themselves – they’ll need to be careful and have good scissor control if they want to cut out the pieces neatly
- Fine Motor Skills – when they’re sticking and picking up and moving the parts and placing them where they need to go
- Pencil Control – if you print off the black and white version they can practice their pencil control and develop hand strength through coloring.
This simple craft will also give them a chance to practice their concentration and perseverance skills as they may find it tricky to place the pieces exactly where they want them to go.
How To Prepare This Simple Anglerfish Craft
First you’re going to want to download the anglerfish templates by clicking on the download button at the bottom of the page – I’ve made a color and a black and white version.
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Other materials you’ll need:
- Safety scissors
- Card stock or Craft paper
- Some good glue
- Some coloring pencils or pens or other artsy materials
Once you’ve downloaded the templates, you’ll need to print them off onto paper or card.
Then, you can cut them out. Or if you’d like your children to get some cutting practice, you can let them have a go.
Then you can stick all the pieces together to make the deep sea creature.
It can be really nice to let your kids have a bit of free rein here and see if they can work it out – kind of like a puzzle.
If they’re struggling, the order I’d do it in is:
- Stick the lure to the back of the head
- Stick the jaw on
- Stick the fins on
- Stick on the tail
(I expect you could have worked that out but I do like to be thorough…)
The finished one should look something like this:
If you want to, you could always laminate the pieces before putting them together and use them as a puzzle. That way, the different parts would be kept nice and they can use them again and again.
After that you’re all done!
Let your kids practice their cutting and sticking skills in a simple and fun way!
But Wait… There’s Also A Black And White Anglerfish Template!
I’ve also made a black and white version which would be an awesome way for your little ones to practice their coloring skills and personalize their fish in their own way!
So why not crack out the pens, crayons, paints or collage (or all of them if you’re feeling adventurous) and let your kids get creative!
Some Other Ways You Could Use This Anglerfish Activity
Classroom Display or Bulletin Board:
If you’re a teacher, you use this as part of a ‘creatures of the deep’ wall display with each child’s completed craft.
Ocean Animals Theme:
Anglerfish fit beautifully into a sea animals unit, and tie in really well with World Aquatic Animal Day or World Oceans Day.
Colour Mixing Fun:
If you’re using the black-and-white version, print off some pictures of real anglerfish and encourage children to blend browns/yellows to get that realistic look.
Storytelling Prompt:
Once the anglerfish is built, ask your children:
Where does their anglerfish live?
What is the glowing light used for?
Is their anglerfish friendly, shy, or brave?
This works beautifully for oral storytelling in preschool and early sentence-building in kindergarten and it’s an easy way to weave language development into the craft session.
However you use it, I hope your little learners have a great time building their fish!
I’d love to hear about what they create!
And you can check out more awesome animal activities here!
Enjoy and let’s nurture those neurons!
