Let's Go Fishing!

If you visit our office this month, you will find that Community Connection for Child Care has had an fish invasion! Our scaly friends are every where; the library, in windows and even in our lobby. We wanted to create an “atmosphere of learning” for the families who are visiting us. We hope that seeing this will encourage and remind adults that children are very influenced by their environment and that learning opportunities are all around. Some of the things that you will see if you visit our office include:

Books about fish and ocean. Some of the titles we included are: “Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister, “Swimmy” by Leo Leoni, “Fish is Fish” by Leo Leoni, and “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” by Dr. Seuss. All of these books are available for check-out in our lending library.

Developmentally: Sometimes children will want to listen to a story and other times they are content with flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures. You can use either time to teach– when you are reading a story, pause between pages to ask children questions about what they’ve heard. But when you are flipping through the pages, you can ask questions about what the children are seeing (objects, shapes, colors, numbers, etc.) that might be familiar to them.

Jellyfish and Octopus.
This is a structured art activity that can be done with older children. You’ll need paper plates, paints, tissue paper cut into long strips and glue. You and the children should first paint your paper plates. When these are dry, glue the strips of tissue paper onto the bottom of the plate. Make the octopus by then drawing a face on the paper plate. To make the jellyfish, simply fold the paper plate into a half circle then staple.

Songs about Fish.

Once I caught a Fish!

    One, Two, Three, Four, Five
    Once I caught a Fish Alive.
    Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten
    Then I threw him back again!

    Why did I let him go?
    Because he bit my finger so!
    Which finger did he bite?
    This little finger on the right!

I’m a Little Goldfish

    I’m a little goldfish,
    I can swim.
    Here is my tail.
    Here is my fin.
    When I want to have fun
    With my friends,
    I wiggle my tail and dive right in!
Developmentally: At first, singing can feel pretty silly – most of us don’t feel confident about sitting down with children and singing (me included). What I’ve found to be easiest is to sing throughout the day – nursery rhymes, finger plays and verses from songs like “You are my Sunshine”. Hearing music and song helps children learn about rhyming, rhythms and tones. Interestingly, these things are tied into learning math skills like sequencing, ordering and patterns.

Fishing Game
 This activity requires some preparation on your part. Somehow, someway you are going to need some fish. You’ll also need: paperclips, magnet, yarn, a long stick and a hot glue gun. I’d suggest visiting our library and using our Ellison machines to do some cut-outs of fish in different colors. To finish them off, attach a paper clip to the fish. The paper clips will attract the magnet. Use the stick, yarn and magnet to make a fishing pole. Using a hot glue gun (careful – the tip of the gun is hot) attach the yarn to one end of the pole and the magnet to the other end.

Developmentally: this activity really helps younger children develop hand-eye coordination. Older children would benefit by making a game out of catching fish of certain colors or amounts of fish.

Seashell Boards
Using a hot glue gun, glue a variety of seashells onto a thick piece of cardboard. This secures the shells so that the children have the opportunity to examine the shells. You can talk to them about what they are seeing – ask leading questions such as, "Can you feel the bumps on this shell? How about this one? Is it bumpy, or smooth?"

Developmentally: Children benefit more from looking at real things than they do from toys or pictures.

Here are some other fun "fish and water" ideas:

Ocean Wave Bottle
Materials: Baby oil, water, blue food coloring, empty water bottle, hot glue gun.
Directions: fill the bottle half full with water and add food coloring. Fill the rest with baby oil. Hot glue the lid on.

Underwater Pictures
 Materials: Crayons, paper, watercolors and paint brushes.
Directions: Have the children color on the paper with crayons and then brush on watercolors. A little food coloring in water will work, too. The watercolors won’t stick to the crayon, and the colors will show through as if it were underwater.

Snappy Shark Puppet
You’ll need: envelopes, scissors, crayons, tape. Have the children lick the flap and seal the envelope. With scissors, cut about ½ inch off one end of the envelope. On the opposite end of the envelope, draw a triangle for the shark’s mouth. Cut out the triangle. Place the triangle anywhere along the top of the envelope. Fasten with tape. Use crayons to decorate the shark . Draw the shark’s teeth and eyes. To open the shark’s mouth, take hold of the top and bottom of mouth and gently push down. Then fold back the teeth edge of the mouth about ½ inch to form the shark’s jaws. Put your hand inside and use your fingers to make the shark snap its teeth.

Sand Playdough
 Mix together 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water and a few drops of vegetable oil. Add ½ to ¾ cups sand until the dough is the desired texture. Let your children play with the sand dough. Encourage them to describe how the play dough feels as they work with it.

Buried Treasure
 Fill a box with sand and hide five small objects in it. Use small things such as shells, pebbles, pennies, beads or buttons. Let your children, search for buried treasure. When they have found as many of the treasures as they can, ask them to count the objects or to match them to a card with a picture of each of the hidden objects on it. You can also provide a sifter for the children to use when searching for the treasure.

A note of caution: This activity definitely needs to be supervised because of the small objects that are involved.

Listening Game
 Fill four glasses with different levels of water. Carefully strike each glass with a spoon. Each glass will make a different sound. Challenge your children to listen for the differences. Which glass makes the highest sound? Which glass makes the lowest sound? When water is added or removed from a glass, how does the sound change?

Empty to Full
Collect five empty clear-plastic soft drink bottles of the same size. Put a different amount of water in each bottle, leaving one bottle empty and filling one bottle completely. Screw the lids tightly on the bottles. Let your children take turns lining up the bottles from empty to full.

Thank you to Lisa Albert from the EPTSS Division for this month's activity!

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