by Janine

June 18th is Go Fishing Day. Fishing is a great summer theme for your classroom. Here are a few of my favorite ideas and activities to go along with this topic.Create your own magnet fishing game. Have each child decorate a paper fish. Then attach a paperclip near the mouth. Create a fishing pole or string with a magnet connected to the end so the children can pretend to fish. You can even use a small plastic pool to place the paper fish in to simulate a pond, or have the children paint a pond on a large piece of paper during art time.

Create a paper plate fish. Cut a triangle shape out of a paper plate. This makes a triangle opening to act as a mouth. The cut out triangle is then attached to the paper plate to make the fish tale. Get creative and have the children decorate their paper plate fish. A few ideas are using tissue paper squares, paints, glitter, or sequins. You can even have the children rip up small pieces of construction paper and glue them on the fish to make it look like scales.

Have each child make their own jello aquarium snack. You will need clear plastic cups, blue jello, jelly beans and candy gummy fish. Have the children place the jelly beans in the bottom of their cup to look like stones. Add jello to fill the cup half way, then let set. Once set, have the children add a plastic fish to their cup. Cover with jello and let set again. After a few hours, each child will have their own personal jello aquarium to snack on.

Make a handprint fish. You can either trace the child’s hand or use paint to make a handprint. Add a google eye as well as a hand drawn mouth. This craft makes a great bulletin board for your “school” of little fish! You can also have each child make an underwater scene by gluing small rocks to the bottom of blue construction paper, strips of twisted green tissue paper as seaweed and a few cheerios to look like bubbles.

Play Sharks in the Water. This game operates on the same premise as Cooperative Musical Chairs. Outline a large square on the floor with either masking tape or chalk. This area is the safe island and the area surrounding the square is the ocean. When the music begins children “swim” around the island. The stopping of the music indicates that sharks are coming and all player must retreat to the safety of the island. With each round the lines are altered making the island smaller and smaller. Players must make work together to make sure everyone has a safe place to get away from the sharks.

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