Goldfish kites for Chinese new year

This is our third craft so far for Chinese new year which is on February 3rd, the children have been having so much fun preparing for all the festivities, and have learned so much in the process. I think this craft was their favourite and caused many delighted squeals as they played with their creations.

We decided to make a goldfish kite, goldfish are considered very fortunate in China especially at the new year and signify abundance. This is another very simple kids craft and we have used a inner tube from a kitchen or toilet roll as the base for our goldfish and covered it in orange crepe paper. We then attached 2 fin shapes to the side with a glue stick and many long strips of crepe and tissue paper to one end to represent the tail.

As you can see from the above photograph the design is pretty self explanatory, little googly eyes were added to make it more fish like. Initially we intended to draw on scales but the crepe paper had an interesting texture so we decided to leave the goldfish as it was.

After the glue was dry, string was attached to the front of the goldfish, which was then attached to a stick or a piece of dowel if you prefer. This allows the goldfish to fly out behind the child as they run about, it has an effect a bit like a wind sock. The children also loved twirling them around above their heads in large circles, as I said earlier this has been by far their favourite craft and it gave them hours of fun.

 These are the 2 goldfish kites hanging up for a rest at the end of the day, just waiting for tomorrow. Our cat thought this was a cool craft too, he was fascinated by the tails as they whizzed past him.