So, I taught the kids how to fish this week (as best I could). Using plastic fish and fishing poles, of course. The kids LOVED it and had a great day fishing in the little pool and water table, playing fishing games, taking turns doing a fishing puzzle, watching a movie about fish, and reading a book about fish. One of the most educational days we've had here at daycare because the kids learned quite a bit!
I bought this set on sale on Amazon more than 4 months ago and have been waiting to use it for our Fishing Day. This set was great for our day. It was toddler friendly, yet not too young for the older kids in our group. It came with an easy to use magnetic fishing pole, 3 magnetic fish, 3 worms for bait, a net, and a vest to wear. The worms were the perfect size (and felt like squishy worms) to teach the kids how to bait their fishing poles. I didn't go into details about fishing, but told them they needed to use a worm to catch a fish. This led to a game of tag later in the day during which the children referred to each other as "bait." At least I know they're taking something in!
The water table was full of sea creatures that the kids caught with the net.
The kids spent 3 hours "fishing" in the little pool!
One kid drank the water from the water table.....
The boys informed the other kids, as they pulled up chairs, that fishing was a quiet activity that required patience. That was NOT how it went when we took them fishing! See post for more about our fishing experience with the kids:
http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2014/06/elizabeths-birthday-fishing-weekend.html
The fishing puzzle. All of the kids love this puzzle. I took it out of the puzzle rotation over a month ago in preparation for Fishing Day, so the kids were all super excited to see their favorite puzzle again.
The new fishing game (found at Toys R Us for $22. Occasionally TJ Maxx has this for several dollars less). The kids didn't quite play by the rules of this game, but we made up our own to help with math and counting skills. We turned it into a learning numbers, colors, adding, and subtracting game. They went along with playing it that way for a while, but mostly they just enjoyed trying to fish with the poles.
And when they had trouble catching the fish they wanted, they used their hands!
The kids colored "Nemo fish," according to them. Elizabeth's fish looks like it's frowning.
Fishing Day required Nemo napkins for lunch and snack times (thanks Grandma Harmeyer for the find!). The kids also watched part of the movie "The Reef" on Netflix after we read a National Geographic book on different types of fish.
Of all of the theme days we've done, this required the least amount of work for me and kept the kids entertained all day long. I was impressed (and a bit surprised) how well the kids did with the fishing poles (not that I expected them to be used at light sabers, but........I totally expected them to be used as swords at some point) and listened to everything I told them about fishing. Let's see if that information sticks the next time we take our 3 minis fishing!
