Coral Reef in Bowl

We are learning about the Marine Biome and having a blast doing it. Today we went onto the National Geographic website and did some research on the coral reef. We also learned the difference between fish and mammals by using one of our science books. When all was said and done we did a craft project I thought of last night. I have dubbed it "Ocean in a bowl." Hope you guys like it.

Supplies needed for this project are a glass fish bowl, sand, small rocks, sea shells, plastic fish (we used the coral reef collection you can buy at Michael's), glue, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, fishing line (not pictured) and poster board.

I traced the top of the bowl and cut out two circles and glued them together. While the glue dried my daughter dumped sand into the empty fish bowl and then sprinkled rocks and shells on the bottom.

We made coral and sea anemones for our coral reef by using different color tissue paper.

We used green pipe cleaners to create kelp and seaweed that we placed in the sand along with the coral we made.

Then we suspended the fish from fishing wire and we attached them to a piece of round poster board at different heights. When that was finished I hot glued the poster board to the rim of the bowl and my daughter stuck blue tissue paper on the top of it to look like waves.

Again, I hope you guys like it and even try making one at home with your child. My daughter absolutely loves it and since it turned out to be such a wonderful craft we will be displaying it on the fireplace mantel.