Smarties Box Salmon Fry
Give your Smarties box a new life! With the help of recycled materials from around your home, create a salmon fry using the instructions below.
The annual Haunted Sea installation is all about repurposing materials like plastic and cardboard. When you repurpose something, you give it a new life and a different function. In addition to your Smarties box, try to find other materials that you can repurpose for this craft. Hint: look in your recycling bin for used pieces of aluminium foil!
Did you know? Small fry are tiny salmon that have lost their protective yolk sacs. They have grown enough that they now have fins, allowing them to swim through the rivers and streams where they hatched to find their own food.
You will need:
- 1 Smarties box
- 2-3 sheets of aluminium foil (approximately 12 inches in width)
- 1 paintbrush
- Black and grey (or silver) paint
- Clear tape
- Sharpie or other black marker
Step 1:
Once your Smarties box is empty, open both ends and remove all the cardboard flaps. Don’t recycle these pieces yet, you will need them for later!
Step 2:
The rounded middle part of the salmon’s body is called the torso. Create the torso by flattening the Smarties box down the middle.
Step 3:
Use the flaps of your Smarties box to make the salmon fry’s fins. Tear or cut the cardboard pieces into the shapes you want.
Not sure what shapes to cut out for the fins? Take a closer look at this salmon fry for help:
Step 4:
Next make the tail fin. Find the longest box flaps and tape them together to form a heart shape. Wrap the heart-shaped piece in aluminium foil until it is completely covered.
Now wrap more aluminium foil around the bottom of the heart piece to make a ball large enough for the tail to fit inside the Smarties box.
Step 5:
Paint the torso and the remaining fins using grey or silver paint. Leave to dry.
Step 6:
While the paint is drying, use a sheet of aluminium foil to create the salmon’s head. All you have to do is shape it with your fingers! Begin by rolling it into a ball and then pinch it in the middle to create the triangular shape.
Salmon fry have big, round eyes. Use a Sharpie or black marker to draw an eye on either side of the salmon’s head.
Step 7:
Use the black marker to add small markings, called parr marks, to the salmon fry’s body. The parr marks help salmon fry hide from predators in the dark water.
Step 8:
Once your cardboard pieces have dried, tape or glue the fins to the torso.
Step 9:
Assemble the last pieces of your salmon fry: gently fit the head piece into one end of the Smarties box, then slide the tail fin into the opposite end. For extra security, you can tape or glue the aluminum foil pieces to the inside of the Smarties box.
Your Smarties box now has a new purpose – to show off an important part in the salmon life cycle!
