I was hanging out with my daughter Aina (2.5 yrs) the other day when she started babbling about how Mickey Mouse went fishing one day and caught some big red Gooey fish. I thought to myself, hey, maybe it would be fun for us to play pretend fishing. So we created this fishing gear in about 5 minutes. It’s actually a very simple idea exploring the wonderful world of magnets. But for 2 year olds, apparently extending their reach by 20 cm with a stick while trying to hit a spot on the ground with a piece of string can be a physically challenging game.
Here’s what we needed to create the game:
- A pair of scissors.
- A stapler.
- Cellophane tape.
- A pair of disposable wooden chopsticks.
- Some string (2 x 25cm) – we used knitting yarn.
- 2 small pieces of magnets.
- An A4 piece of copier paper or very light card stock.
- Markers.
First, we made two fishing rods. One for me, and one for the kid. Tied the strings to the ends of the chopsticks. Attach a piece of magnet to the dangling end of the string with cellophane tape.
Second, draw a bunch of little fish (and some sea creatures like crabs, octopie, clams, starfish etc) on the paper with black marker. Each of them shouldn’t be more than 5 cm in diameter since they will be too heavy for the magnets to lift up if they were too big. I had Aina color the fish and sea creatures afterwards.
Finally, cut out each fish and sea creature with your scissors. I stapled them in 3 – 5 places each so that the magnets have a better chance of latching on.
Spread the little paper fish on the floor and get on a pillow boat – see who can catch the most fish the fastest. No touching the strings!
Have fun fishing!
The rest of the photos are in The Making of the Fishing Fish album.
