Welcome to another Wacky Workshops project – making marvellous mermaids.

What better way to celebrate Oceans Day (June 8) than to delve into the mysteries of the sea?

And, while 95 per cent of the ocean remains unexplored, there are plenty of mysteries to uncover.

The mystery of the mermaid is one that has captured our imaginations for centuries.

It is thought that claims of mermaids sightings were inspired by manatees and dugongs. Perhaps these were what the ship crews actually saw but mistook for the mysterious mermaid. Maybe after a little too much rum!

Modern mermaid sightings have been reported.

During 2009, news reports claimed that a mermaid had been sighted off the coast of Israel.

Depending on the folklore, mermaids can bring happiness and good luck – or disaster.

These marvellous mermaid projects and full of joy.

MARVELLOUS MERMAIDS ART PROJECT

I love this project as it ticks so many boxes for children. It inspired the imagination and creative thinking, uses a few (easily obtained) materials and encourages focus.

MATERIALS

• Cardboard or canvas
• Paint in various colours
• Blue paper – different shades and textures, We used sparkly blue paper, regular blue A4 paper and corrugated blue paper.
• Sequins
• Glue

METHOD

• Paint the ocean background.

This is a wonderful opportunity to point out to children that nature is made up of a combination of many different hues. The ocean is not just one shade of blue, but many as well as shades of green and other colours reflected onto it.

For this project, we used a few different shades of blue, a little purple and some green paint.

• When the background is dry, make a little mark where your mermaid tale will start.
• From the bottom of the canvas, glue torn strips of blue paper up toward the mark. Have them overlap slightly.
• It’s best to tear the paper, rather than cut because the irregularities represent the movement of the ocean. The corrugated paper revealed its white base when torn, but we left that in to represent sea foam.

• Draw the mermaid tail from the top of the paper strips to nearly the top of the canvas. NOTE: You may find it easier to draw half the tail on folded paper and cut it so that both sides of the tail are equal. Then you can use this to trace your tail onto the canvas.

• Once you’ve drawn the tail shape, glue sequins within it, starting from the bottom and keeping the rows even. This is such a good exercise to promote focus for children.
• Add a little glitter paint to represent splashes if desired.

MARVELLOUS MERMAIDS HOUSE

It’s ridiculously easy to make a mermaid house. I was lucky enough to have a petty silver box to use but you can use any box and decorate it as desired.

We used shells and coloured beads and pipe cleaners represented coral. We had some old wooden fish magnets we attached, but this would be a great opportunity for children to draw their own or make some like the ones featured here.

If you’re feeling brave (like I was) you can sew a beautiful mermaid to live in the house. For a simpler version of the mermaid, read on.

EASY MARVELLOUS MERMAIDS DOLLS

These are a lot of fun for the kids to play with and so easy to make. Just cut a tail shape from foam (you could also use cardboard).

Glue it into the opening of a wooden clothes peg. Markers can colour the body and pipe cleaners make wonderful arms.

Glue on wool or ribbon hair and add facial features. Couldn’t be easier.

Try these fun ocean crafts for more creativity.

Happy crafting and have a gleeful week, Tamuria.