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You are here: Home » Blog Posts » Kid-friendly Crafts » Book-related Crafts » Swimmy the Fish: Easy, DIY Stamp Craft & Activity for Kids

Swimmy the Fish: Easy, DIY Stamp Craft & Activity for Kids

By Jenn (aka Mama Jenn) • Last Updated: July 10, 2025

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Are you reading Swimmy by Leo Lionni? Be sure to incorporate this cute, DIY Swimmy stamp craft! It’s fun for the kids & easy to set up!

My kids love reading books! And I love creating crafts and activities to go along with some of the books we read together!

Our latest book-related craft is about a little fish that reminds us of the value of teamwork!

Swimmy Stamp Craft for Kids

This page may contain affiliate and/or advertiser links. Please review my disclosure policy.

Swimmy by Leo Lionni is a wonderful little book that I enjoy reading to my kids! The book helps to remind kids about the importance and benefits of teamwork!

To avoid being eaten, Swimmy, a little black fish, and a school of little red fish work together to swim in a formation that looks like one giant fish – with Swimmy as the eye.

I just love the message that is portrayed within the book! Teamwork!

Swimmy by Leo Lionni
Swimmy by Leo Lionni

I have read this book to all of my kids during their kindergarten year. It’s always a favorite!

This year, with my youngest twins, I decided to incorporate a fun fish stamping craft to go along with the book!

We had loads of fun and I love how our craft turned out!

Swimmy DIY Stamp Activity

Swimmy Fish Stamping Directions:

First we made fish shaped bottle top stamps. To make the stamps, we used a piece of craft foam and cut it into small fish shapes.

Then we got some of our recycled bottle tops. (When my kids were young, I saved the lids and tops from most bottles and containers so we could repurpose them!)

Once you’ve got your foam fish shapes cut, adhere them to the bottle tops.

Regular white glue works well, but if you’ve got impatient kids, some double-sided tape or a glue gun can do the trick a lot faster! We used a glue gun!

Stamps are shown in the image below.

DIY Fish Stamp

Next, I drew a big fish shape on white paper. You can see the faintly drawn fish in the photos below.

The boys stamped red fish inside the big fish drawn on the paper, which is great for those fine motor skills!

Swimmy the fish stamp

They continued stamping until the big fish was full of little red fish.

fish stamp

Then we used black ink to stamp Swimmy! He is the eye of the giant fish created by all the tiny red fish!

Swimmy the fish

Next, we cut out the fish and glued it to blue paper! More fine motor skills practice!

cutting the Swimmy craft

Lastly, we glued Swimmy onto blue construction paper! I love how the craft turned out!

And, the kids had so much fun with the activity!

Swimmy Stamp Craft Activity for Kids

Alternative Swimmy Craft:

One of my boys wanted to make the blue paper look more like water so we grabbed some blue and white paint and some bubble wrap.

bubble wrap water

Here is Swimmy in the bubbly blue water! My son loves how his fish is different from his sibling’s fish! So creative!

Swimmy Stamp Craft

Which do you prefer?

So, which one do you like best? Swimmy in the plain blue water or Swimmy in the bubbly blue water?

We love reading this book and our go-along craft activity was lots of fun! If you don’t already own Swimmy, be sure to look for it at your local library!

It’s a classic that will never grow old!

Swimmy Stamp Activity Craft for Kids

This post was originally published on April 14, 2013.

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Category: Animal Crafts, Art Activities, Book-related Crafts, Letter "F" Activities, Letter "S" Activities, Recycled Crafts
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Next Post:Ff for Frog: MFW Kindergarten PrintablesMy Father's World Kindergarten Craft and Copywork Pages ~ Ff is for Frog

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Comments

  1. Mama Jenn

    May 2, 2013 at 3:12 am

    Thanks Desiree! It was alot of fun!

    Reply
  2. Mama Jenn

    May 1, 2013 at 3:24 pm

    Yep, I saw the idea of cutting and gluing the fish onto the page. In fact, I think we did that one year! But, the stamping is much easier and more fun!

    Reply
  3. Desiree

    May 1, 2013 at 5:06 am

    This looks like fun. I like the fish in the bubbly background, but both work!

    Reply
  4. kewkew

    April 28, 2013 at 4:47 am

    Oh, we just read Swimmy last week along with our Oo:Octopus unit for MFW. I wish I had seen this post earlier. What a neat idea. I had seen the idea of gluing on little fish in the shape of a fish, but I like this way better. I have never made stamps like this. Gonna have to try it.

    Reply
  5. Mama Jenn

    April 20, 2013 at 6:59 am

    Thanks! We have made all kinds of stamps this way! Love being able to recycle stuff in a fun way!

    Reply
  6. Nicole DeLeon

    April 17, 2013 at 7:04 pm

    What a great idea! I love your simple way of making the stamps with products we always have on hand. Looks like fun too!

    Reply
  7. Mama Jenn

    April 16, 2013 at 9:09 pm

    Thanks Jodi! We try to have a lil bit of fun! {grins}

    Reply
  8. Jodi Durr

    April 15, 2013 at 6:24 pm

    Wow! I love this. What a great idea! Your kids must have had a blast.

    Reply

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Hi there! I'm Jennifer (aka Mama Jenn).

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