Sunday 12 August 2012

Aquarium in a box

I was about to throw out an old washing machine tablet container the other day, when I remembered a fantastic craft from my blogging buddy Trouble Doubled's blog - a shoebox aquarium. We've also been playing fish tanks quite a lot lately (you don't know how to play fish tanks? Easy, you put all available children into the baby's cot and let them pretend to be fish while you carry on with your business safe in the knowledge that they aren't going anywhere) so I thought that Harry would enjoy this one.

How to make a plastic box aquarium craft with children

Making the aquarium is very simple, just make some seaweed out of a pipe cleaner, add some small stones from the garden (Mia helped with this bit, she even licked some of the stones to make sure that they were nice and clean), some shredded green paper if you have some, then make and decorate some cardboard fish to sellotape from the underside of the lid.

How to make a plastic box aquarium craft with children

Harry was more interested in playing with the fish tank rather than just looking at it when it was finished, luckily we have a few fish lying about that he could put inside. He also asked when we were going to put the water in, and actually this container would work quite well for that, so we may well try it at some point!

How to make a plastic box aquarium craft with children

14 comments:

  1. That's a great idea - looks brilliant x

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  2. love it Jen !! I've got a few of these containers so we'll have an entire aquarium before long !!

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    1. I've got quite a few too, they are such a nice container it's a shame to throw them away!

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  3. Great idea, and no tank to clean out, even better!

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    1. Yes much lower maintenance than a real tank, and in fact the other day Harry said that we didn't need a pet fish as we had pretend ones!

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  4. Really great idea, love the putting them in cot and telling them it's a fish tank think too - great plan ;) x

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    1. It is a surprisingly effective way to keep them entertained and out of harm's way!

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  5. Great idea. Think I'll do this with my son too at some point.

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  6. I love this idea, we recently made paper plate aquariums but I love the idea of using these washing tubs.

    I have one of these tubs in my garden but it was being used as a soaking tub for dirty underwear - oh the joy of potty training! I think I'll wait and use a clean one.

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    1. Probably best to wait for a clean one! They are very useful boxes aren't they!

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  7. VERY cute!! Love it. And I guess you can keep changing the fish too if you get bored!

    Thanks for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

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    1. Yes, you could put all sorts of things in there!

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