Jellyfish craft for kids

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Today I’m sharing a jellyfish craft that is super fun for kids to make.

The process requires some patience as there is drying time involved, but the end result was pretty cool and my kids really enjoyed playing with their jellyfish.

Don’t the ribbons on these jellyfish look just like tentacles swaying in the water?!?

Note: For more ocean-related resources, please see my ocean unit study page.

Jellyfish craft kids can make using a balloon, some tissue paper, and curling ribbon. So cute and fun to play with! #oceans #ocean #oceananimals #jellyfish #artsandcrafts #giftofcuriosity || Gift of Curiosity

To make these jellyfish, you will need the following materials:

Balloon
Marker
Paint brush
Tissue paper (we used tissue paper squares, but any kind will do)
Glue
Water
Large cup or bowl to hold balloon
Small cup or bowl to mix glue solution
Ribbon (we used curling ribbon)
Tape
String
Bead

To start, we blew up and tied our balloons at the size we wanted to make our jellyfish.

While kids often think bigger is better, keep in mind that bigger balloons require more work to turn them into jellyfish. You don’t want your child to get too tired or overwhelmed that they can’t finish.

After blowing up our balloons, we placed them into a cup to keep them level.

I drew a line around the bottom 1/3 of the balloon to show my kids what part of the balloon they needed to cover (above the line) and what part they did not need to cover (below the line).

I created a water and glue mixture by mixing equal parts water with equal parts glue. My kids used large paint brushes to apply the mixture to the top part of their balloons above the line.

With the balloon covered in glue, my kids started covering the top part of the balloon with tissue paper.

Ultimately we added about three layers of tissue paper, using more of the glue mixture as needed to ensure all the tissue paper was coated with glue.

We allowed our balloons to dry for 48 hours. Once they were dry, we used a pin to pop the ballon and remove it from the tissue paper shell that was left behind. This part represented the head/body of the jellyfish.

At this point, we cut strips of ribbon about equal to one arm’s length to represent the tentacles of the jellyfish.

We used tape to attach the ribbon to the inside of the jellyfish head.

We made a small hole in the top of the jellyfish head.

Then we tied a bead to a string. We threaded the non-beaded end through the bottom of the jellyfish head and out the top. The bead kept the string securely attached to the jellyfish.