Looking for a fun way to practice identifying uppercase and lowercase letters with your preschooler this summer? Look no further than this DIY early literacy game. I have created a FREE PRINTABLE (link below) for you to use to make your own alphabet fishing game to play and learn with your little one!
Importance of Letter Recognition in Preschool
Research finds that early exposure to the letters of the alphabet in playful ways helps to form the foundation for future reading and writing success. Providing young children with engaging alphabet activities leads to a solid foundation for later literacy skills. Play based activities such as this fishing game, teach important skills while also building up the child’s confidence. Confident children who have fun while learning often become children and adults who genuinely love to learn.
Create Your Own Alphabet Fishing Game with these Simple Steps
- Make your Sensory Bin
If you would like to create your game using a sensory bin to “fish” out of, you will first need to find a small bin or box to use. I would just like to state that this step is totally not necessary- so don’t let it hold you back from using this activity with your child. The game would work just as well if you wanted to lay the fish on a piece of blue construction paper, or even right onto the table. Using a bin does add the extra benefit of sensory exploration to the activity. I find that most children are really motivated by that tiny bit of “extra.”
I used dyed rice to create my bin. First, put three cups of rice into a ziploc bag. Next, add in 3 teaspoons of vinegar and around 15 drops of blue food coloring. Seal the bag and massage it thoroughly until the rice turns blue. Feel free to add more food coloring as you see fit- depending on the shade of blue you are going for. Finally, spread it out on a paper towel and allow time to dry. Once dry, pour into your bin. You can find this recipe and more detailed instructions for dying rice here in this previous blog post.
2. Create a Fishing Rod
I was so fortunate to find this fishing rod at the Dollar Tree! To use it for this game, I simply hot glued a magnet to the “hook” on the end and it worked perfectly! You can even reel in the fish with this particular rod. Now please don’t be discouraged if you pop into your local Dollar Tree and they don’t have any of these in stock! In the past I have used a string on a dowel, a chopstick, and even a stick from our yard to play this fishing game with both the children in my preschool classroom as well as with my own children. All of those options worked just fine! I did find a fishing rod similar to the one from the Dollar Tree available on Amazon in case you prefer that.
3. Print out the FREE PRINTABLE
Go ahead and download and then print out the FREE Alphabet Fishing Printable below:
Cut out the uppercase fish. I like to laminate them for durability, but again this is not necessary if you do not own a laminator. I also laminated the 3 lowercase alphabet matching pages for durability- but again- not a necessary step for you to complete in order for your child to benefit from this game!
4. Attach Something Metal to the Fish
I used a hole-punch to punch out the eye of each fish and then popped in a small brad that would allow the fish to stick to the magnet. However, if you don’t have any brads on hand, you can easily swap out a paperclip and it would work just as well.
******DISCLAIMER: As with any activity that includes small parts, adult supervision is required if you use this game with a small child who still puts things into their mouth. The brads, paperclips and the magnet could all pose a danger if not closely supervised*******
5. Time to Play and Learn!
Now it’s time to put the fish in the sensory bin and let your child play and learn!
There are so many ways to play!
- Fish out an uppercase letter fish and then match it to the lowercase letter on the 3 -page alphabet chart.
- Fish out the letters- identify them and then lay them down in alphabetical order
- Fish out a letter, identify the letter as well as the color of the fish and then sort it into the corresponding color. I used a set of stacking dishes that I had in the corresponding colors, but you could use corresponding pieces of construction paper to sort them onto, or a muffin tin with corresponding colors in each section.
- Fish out a letter and then match it to an item in the home or classroom that begins with that letter.
There are truly so many ways to extend this activity to play and learn.
Get creative and happy learning!
Is your child ready for more hands-on alphabet learning? Check out the following activities available in my Etsy Shop! These learning games take the stress off of you and also save you valuable time by arriving in the mail ready for your child to play and learn with!
