another fishing game

When we were at the Hulbert Street Sustainability Fiesta I saw so many fun things to do with kids. One of the activities Mister E had a go at was play fishing. It was brilliant, he got such a thrill when he caught a fish and it was perfect for his skill level. I have made a felt fishing game before, and I love it but there was something particularly fun about these fish floating around in real water. I thought I could easily replicate something similar at home.

If you want to make your own similar fishing game here’s what you need;

To make the fishes;
A selection of plastic bottles, rinsed out, (take the labels off if they come off easily, if not leave them on).
Spray paint (works quickest, but any paint will do).
Metal hooks or eye hooks.

To make the fishing rod;
A stick or piece of dowel.
A piece of string.
A magnet with a hole. (I bought magnets with holes in but i’m sure you could drill a hole if it doesn’t have already. You need to make sure it is a really strong magnet and will easily attach to the hook and pull the fish out of the water, otherwise it is very frustrating for young fishermen when the fish keep falling off).

A large bucket / paddle pool filled with water for the pond.

To make the fish, I screwed a hook into one end of each bottle, then spray painted them all.

I just used colours I had already but it would be nice to have lots of different colours. I used spray paint because it was super quick to paint and dry. If I had more time I would have sat down with Mister E and made an activity out of painting and decorating each fish, but we were impatient to start fishing!

When the paint was dry I drew some faces on the fish and that was them done.

The fishing pole was really easy to make. Tie the magnet to the string and tie the string to the dowel. You may need to secure the string on the dowel with a bit of sticky tape to stop it sliding off. I also put a big ball of blu-tac on the pointy end of the stick because there were two boys fishing and the poles were flying about and no-one likes being jabbed with a pointy stick, accidentally or otherwise.

I had all this stuff at home and the whole process took about twenty minutes, so it was worth the effort.

Then we had lots of fun fishing, the kids loved it!