Coral Reef Water Colour Art Project for Kids

The book we used was One Small Square: Coral Reef by Donald Silver. One Small Square dives the details of a coral reef. We learned about the animals and plant life in a coral reef. We also learned about how they are formed and why it is so important to save coral reefs. This is a wonderful book but it is aimed at kids 5 and up. If you’re working with younger kids, Life in a Coral Reef by Wendy Pfeffer is a great choice for preschoolers, and toddlers would love Over in the Ocean: In a Coral Reef by Marianne Berkes.

After reading all about coral reefs, we got out some of our art supplies to make our own watercolor and salt coral reefs. The salt added a fun texture to our projects.

We used our watercolors, white paper, and salt to make our plants and animals for our coral reef. We started by painting designs on our white paper. We painted stripes, blobs, and curvy bits. There is no need to get into too many details at this point. While the paint was still wet, we sprinkled salt over it. When the paint dries, the salt will add a fun texture to your painting.

Once the painting were dry, we shook off the excess salt. We were left with a cool texture that was perfect for our coral reefs. We then used our scissors to cut our paintings into some of the shapes we saw in our books. We had large fan shapes, smaller blobs, tree-like shapes, and more. We even cut a few fish shapes. Once they were all cut out, we arranged them on our blue paper and glued them down. We were left with a perfect coral reef, that was as individual as any found in our oceans. And, along the way, we learned about the importance of the coral reef and the creatures living in them.

I hope you enjoyed our virtual trip to the coral reef!

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