Title: Create Your Own Aquarium (Group Project)

Theme: Under the Sea

Brief description of project/activity: Your class works together to draw, color and add sea life to it's own aquarium. For younger kids, teachers may want to provide coloring pages that display various water creatures. This is a great opportunity to teach kids about the underwater world. As an exercise, present magazines and ask kids to hunt through them for ocean-related images to put in the aquarium. For extra fun, encourage kids to invent their own sea creatures to add to the project.

Materials/supplies needed: butcher roll paper or any large-size paper, pastels, sea-life coloring pages, magazine clippings, pastels, watercolor, large brushes, scissors, glue

Instructions: This project works best if water-resistant pastel is used to color the sea creatures. Use the pastel to draw the floor and walls of the aquarium directly on the poster paper. Once kids have fully colored/decorated their individual sea creatures and/or have found magazine images, simply cut them out and glue them onto the large paper aquarium. Have kids "add water to their aquarium" by taking turns brushing blue/green watercolors over the poster.