Decorative Jonah's Fish Threading

The biblical story of Jonah and the fish is traditionally read on Yom Kippur which makes for lots of opportunities for Jonah and the fish crafts, such as this Decorative Jonah’s Fish Threading craft! As you know, I strongly believe children learn best through arts, crafts, and lots of play! When I introduced this craft to my children, we started by reading and matching our brand new The Book of Jonah 3 Part Cards, then creating this fun craft to supplement our learning! We followed it up with our favorite Jonah and the fish book, Oh No Jonah! Reading + craft is my jam!

What You’ll Need

Cardboard
Scissors
Paint
Paintbrushes
Pipe cleaners
Pony beads

Putting It Together

Cut a fish shape from your cardboard.
Invite your child to paint the fish however they wish.
Set out some pony beads and pipe cleaners and let your kiddo thread the beads onto the pipe cleaners.
When the fish is dry, and your pipe cleaner bead threads are complete, carefully wrap the pipe cleaners around the cardboard fish, creating its decorative, kid-made scales!
Pair with your favorite Jonah and the fish book (we love Oh, No Jonah!) or with our The Book of Jonah 3 Part Cards.

Finished & Loving It!

The Book of Jonah can have some intense and scary parts, but if you adapt your language to what your child can understand and feel comfortable with, you can easily participate in the Yom Kippur tradition of reading the Book of Jonah on this special day.

Making a craft like this Decorative Jonah’s Fish Threading is another way to relate kids on a level they can understand, feel comfortable with and enjoy! I loved being able to tell the story to them again while they created their decorative fish. Each time they hear the story, it will help them remember the bits and pieces until they can start telling it back to us!

This craft was super simple to set up. It did require the wait time for drying, so was not a complete one-stop craft, but the kids didn’t mind that it was broken up into multiple settings. They happily painted their fish and while those worked on drying, we popped out to a yummy Italian ice shop to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. She turns 9 on October 4th … yep, on Kol Nidre. So we made sure to do some extra family celebrations today since it will be hard for us to get out after school Tuesday before Kol Nidre starts. But it also made sure that our afternoon was filled with sweet things–crafts and yummy treats!

My kids LOVE beading on pipe cleaners. Even the toddler can easily manipulate these beads and thread them onto the pipe cleaners. If you want to age differentiate, you can include some thinner thread, like beading thread or embroidery floss, as well as some beads with smaller holes. The older children can work with these smaller and thinner items, ever improving their fine motor skills, while the younger ones can stick with the larger pony beads. Or whatever works for them!

Not only did the kids practice fine motor skills when doing the threading, but wrapping the pipe cleaners around the cardboard fish and twisting the ends also took some focus and coordination. All these little things really add up in strengthening hand muscles, developing those fine motor skills, better preparing them for writing, and of course, having fun!

There is also the potential for pattern building or following. I left the beading choices completely up to the kids but you could encourage them to make patterns with the colors and practice that skill as well. No matter what color scheme the kids end up using, these beaded “scales” will look lovely on the cardboard Jonah’s fish!