I originally made this as a craft for my 2 nephews and my niece, then I made another to use in my 5th grade school project on the Great Barrier Reef. Not only is this a great project for your little ones or as a good touch in a marine school project, even as an aquatic addition to your cubicle! It's pretty simple, and customizable. Hope you have fun with it!

Step 1: Materials

This is all the stuff you will need:

Scissors

Hot Glue Gun (though I'm sure superglue would work, though you might need a lot)

Thumbtack (to hang it)

Fishing String (to attach it to the thumbtack)

Sharpie (or similar bleed-mark making device)

Cardstock (construction paper works, but I'm not too fond of the graininess of it, cardstock is much smoother and a bit thicker)

2 CDs that you don't need

Googly eyes (medium size works good, though the super-large ones look hilarious!)

Template (Courtesy of DLTK-Kids)

Step 2: Cutting Out the Pieces

First, save the template below onto your hard drive and open it up with Word and *make sure it is 100% enlarged* or else your fish will look like he just ate a REALLY big pancake. I printed mine out on draft mode, because my printer just drinks ink. I also just printed mine onto a normal piece of paper, and traced onto the cardstock. It doesn't really matter though. Take your template and pick a piece to start tracing. What I did was place it on top of the cardstock near the edge, to conserve paper, which helps later on, trust me, and used a Sharpie to trace it. There are other ways (which are probably better and easier), so you can choose any method you like. Note: You are going to need to trace the large top (dorsal) fin twice, as we need two of them. Ok, once you get the pieces traced, cut them out. I used scissors, again, use your sharp object of choice.

Step 3: More Cutting and Touching Up

You should have about half a sheet left. If not, you'll have to use another sheet. Whatever you do, cut off 1/4 of a sheet. Set this aside for a bit.

Now, the two dorsal fins you cut, we have to make sure they are the same shape. Exactly.

All you pretty much have to do is match them up approximately and cut off overlapping tidbits.

Step 4: Making the Pectoral Fins

All right, take that 1/4 sheet of paper and do an accordion fold. That means just fold a small bit and then down, up, down, etc. If any bit that isn't big enough for a fold, cut it off.

*Important* Make the folds big enough so you can put this through the hole in the CDs later.

Step 5: Putting It All Together.

Set one CD down so the Label is face up. Set all of the pieces on top of it to see where to glue and see if you need to move the pieces around. It's all in your taste.

I tilted my top (dorsal) and bottom fin back (differing from the picture) for a swept-back look. Like I said before, it is up to you.

Once you get the pieces how you like them, pick up a piece and start squirting hot glue on it. Quickly put it back down on the CD. You alternately but the hot glue on the CD, I don't think it really matters.

Do this with all of the pieces, except the duplicate dorsal fin. First you have to squirt a little glue (in a vertical line starting at the bottom of the fin) and quickly place an end of the fishing string on it (so the string goes up). This is to hang the fish by. After you get done, you can glue the duplicate down on top.

Once you are satisfied with everything, squirt glue all over the bottom CD and place the second CD, label down, and push down on it hard, to flatten it out.

Step 6: Add the Eyes (AKA, Blind Fish Are Bad)

Another personal preference. Place the eyes where you want them, try to match them up to they aren't extremely off in position. Mine were. You can put both of the eyes on the same side to make a flounder! Haha! (Ok, so it really isn't that funny.)

Step 7: Add the Pectoral Fins

Remember the accordion-folded paper? Stick that through the hole in the middle of the CDs about halfway. Then spread the fins so they are fanned out in an upward direction.

Step 8: Finishing Up

If you have a separated area between the CDs (see the first picture) just fill it in with hot glue, just try not to dribble. Any glue-threads need to be removed as they are as annoying as spiderwebs.

Now, I tied a hangman's noose on my thumbtack, but you can tie a regular overhand knot to attach the fishing string to the thumbtack. Take the tack and shove in a wall, shelf, or any other soft material that will hold the thumbtack (no, not your brother's head).

Hope yours turned out and looks good. Comment on my tutorial, whether you liked it or not, if you think I should change something, or post a picture of your fish! Thanks for reading and good luck!