Diego's Polar Bear Fishing Game

Here's a fun and creative way to help preschoolers learn their numbers and colors--and it's a great activity at parties, too. Just make the polar bear paw from a kitchen towel and the numbered magnetized fish using our printable. Your kids can pretend they're polar bears fishing in the Arctic.

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Materials

• Fishing Game Fish Printable
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Self-sealing laminating sheets (available at office supply stores)
• Paper clips
• Polar Bear Paw Template
• White kitchen towel and brown felt
• Fabric glue
• 1 craft magnet (strong and light magnets are recommended)
• Chopstick, wooden dowel, or any tiny stick (optional)
• String (optional)
• Big plastic bucket, basin, or fish bowl

Directions

1. Step 1

   Cut out the double-sided fish images from the Fishing Game Fish Printable and glue each fish image back to back with a paper clip in between.

2. Step 2

   To laminate the fish, cut out a rectangle from a laminating sheet that's bigger than each fish. Peel off the backing and place the paper fish in the center of the sticky side. Press down on the fish to make sure there are no air bubbles. Cut out another rectangle from the laminating sheet, remove the backing, and place it sticky-side down on top of the fish. Press along the edge of the laminated fish to seal tightly. Note: If there are wrinkles or ridges that lead out to the edge of the laminating plastic, water can seap in through the opening. Cut around the paper fish shape leaving at least a 1/4-inch laminated border.

3. Step 3

   Print, cut, and trace the Polar Bear Paw Template onto a white kitchen towel twice, once with the shape flipped. Cut out both shapes from the towel. Place fabric glue along the edges and glue the two pieces together so the sides with tracing lines are facing each other and will be hidden inside the paw. Drop a magnet into the paw before you completely seal it up.

4. Step 4

   Cut out four tiny triangles from brown felt as the polar bear's claws. Using the image reference on the templates, glue the "claws" onto the polar bear paw.

5. Step 5 (OPTIONAL)

   Poke a hole at the top of the "paw," thread a string through, wrap it around a chopstick or wooden dowel, and knot the ends together.

6. Step 6

   Find a big bucket, basin, or simply using your sink or bathtub, fill it with water. Drop the fish and start the polar bear fishing game!

7. How to Play: Basic

   Using the paw fishing pole, have your child catch as many fish as she can in any order she wishes. You might want to start off with a few fish at first, and as your child becomes more adept at catching the fish, add more to the basin.

8. How to Play: Numbers

   To help your child learn number recognition, place fish 1-5 in the basin and ask her to catch the fish in numerical order. If your child is ready to learn more numbers, add fish 6-10.

9. How to Play: Colors

   You can bolster color recognition skills similarly by placing as many fish in the basin as you want and asking your child to "fish" for a particular color. (Alternatively, your child could catch the fish in any order and call out each color as she catches them).

10. How to Play: Numbers & Colors

    Combining the two games above, have your child catch the fish in numerical order and call out the number and color on each fish as she goes.