I will show you how to use the book "The Rainbow Fish" as a source of inspiration

for a visual arts activity using wax crayons and watercolours.

This drawing and painting activity is based on the wonderful book

The Rainbow Fish, by the author and illustrator Marcus Pfister.

I started by thinly drawing the outline of the fish with a pencil

but this step is optional. You can start your picture with crayons right away.

I will draw all the important elements of my picture with crayons.

I chose to use a blue crayon to draw the outline of the fish, its fins,

its scales, the mouth and one eye.

Then I coloured some details of the fish with other colours of crayons.

For example, I coloured the pupil of the fish in black, the mouth yellow,

some scales red and others white. I also drew white lines on the fins .

In addition to integrating reading with art activities, this project can be used

to talk about science topics such as the physical appearance of the fish.

Fish have fins to help them balance and swim in the water. You can also talk about

marine life, plants and other organisms in the fish's environment.

So you can draw algae and corals of different colours.

Still in relation to the science subject,

you can explain to children how fish breath under water.

With white crayon, you can represent the carbon dioxide bubbles

that fish reject while breathing.

When you are satisfied with the crayon drawing, it's time to cover the whole design

with a thin coat of blue paint applied with a brush.

What is interesting with this technique is that the crayon does not absorb the paint.

The areas of paper that are not covered with wax absorb the paint

while the crayon drawing retains its colours.

In the story, the Rainbow Fish is covered with shiny scales of many colours.

To represent the shimmering, you can colour the scales using glitter glue pencils.

To cover the white scales, I used silver glitter glue

while I used various other colours on the remaining scales.

In addition to integrating the reading activity with visual arts and a science lesson,

this beautiful book also allows you to talk about sharing.

For young children, it is not always easy to share but it is something they must learn.

To print the illustrated instructions of this project,

click on the link below the video.