The boys love to play pretend, and often use an empty kitchen roll as a telescope so we decided to make some a little more special and decorate them for a fun and easy make a telescope craft.

Make a telescope craft - with a fish theme. Easy and fun! From http://intheplayroom.co.ukYou will need:

How to make the telescope:

  • Cut the tissue paper to size roughly
  • Tape one edge to the kitchen roll like this:fishtelesstep1
  • Then roll roll roll roll until it is all wrapped, and tape the remaining end tightly. If you have spare tissue paper at each end, tuck it in and tape it down firmly
  • fishtelescstep

Once your kitchen roll is fully covered then the kids are ready to stick and decorate! Younger children will need help with the tissue wrapping, and older ones may be able to do those steps themselves too.

fishtelex
Peeling the backing off the foam stickers is a great fine motor activity and the boys loved deciding where to place all their fish. Mr Z recreated his own scene from Finding Nemo using some of the clown fish stickers. We had just finished watching right before this activity so they were even more enthusiastic about the fish theme! For the younger ones its an ideal chance to talk about colours and sizes as we choose the different fish.

You could also get your children could to decorate the fish in patterns and sequences to sneak in a little maths if they would enjoy that.

fishtelesstep
You can modify this activity using whichever types of foam stickers you have available, but I love the tropical fish theme. It’s so colourful! Mr T chose the pink tissue paper for his telescope and I think that one looks particularly bright and summery!

Once the kids are done making the telescope they are ready to play straight away, with the foam stickers there is nothing that needs to dry so they can run off and play, spying many things through their telescopes for plenty more imaginary and gross motor play.

telescr
You could also adapt this to make a simple kaleidoscope by adding a panel at the end with glitter and sequins. I’m meaning to give that a try so when we make it, I will of course share the results with you!

Summer craft idea - Make a telescope with a tropical fish theme!
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