Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy

My littles both love to fish (which makes sense seeing as my husband loves the sport so much he has a whole cupboard full of lures and too many poles to count!) so I thought it would be fun to do a fishing themed week of learning! Come dive in with us as we learn about all things fishy!

–Celery scale painting: My original idea for this activity was to cut a scale shaped stamp from a potato, but when I saw that The Crafting Chicks used celery I thought that was a stroke of genius (and waaaaay easier to set up!) I just gave my littles some cardstock fish and had them use a celery to stamp scales on them. You can use a different piece of celery for each color, or have them use the same one which creates a tie dye scale effect which is also cool- just make sure they stamp rather than smearing the paint!

–Paper plate fish: I had my littles cut out a triangle (which I drew for them first) from a paper plate to make the fish’s mouth, then glue it to the back of the plate to make a tail. Then I had them paint their plates in the color of their choice and add a googly eye to make a fish!

–Fishbowl name craft: I cut out a fishbowl and some small fish with each of the letters in my little’s name on them (my preschooler glued all the fish down first then wrote his own letters). Then I had my little find each letter in his name in order and glue them to the bowl.

–Goldfish cracker counting: I gave my little a flashcard with a number on it, helped him identify the number then had him count that amount of goldfish crackers. If your little has trouble counting, you can count with them, or if they’re good at counting you can slide the fish over for them as they count…or have them do both independently! We did flashcards with the numbers 1-10 on them.

–School of fish ordering: I cut out 10 fish from construction paper, wrote the numbers 1-10 on them then had my little put them in order. Since he’s just starting out with number recognition, I would ask him to find the 1 (and help him if he couldn’t), then the 2 and so on.

–“Let’s Go Fishing” fine motor game: My littles got this game for Christmas and it’s such a fun way to practice fine motor skills. We added in some counting practice by counting up all the fish each of us caught and comparing to see who had the most.

–Supply/shopping list:

• celery
• paper plate
• toilet paper tube
• “Let’s Go Fishing” game
• Goldfish crackers