Fun and Easy Homemade Fishing Game for Toddlers and Preschoolers

This homemade fishing game is easy to make with a few common household supplies. It’s a great activity for toddlers and preschoolers, and helps to develop hand-eye co-ordination and concentration skills.

We have a backyard pond here in my daycare, and the hooligans love to gather around it with sticks and plastic poles, pretending that they’re fishing for the goldfish that live in the pond. These sticks and poles don’t have lines and hooks attached, so the kids know they won’t really catch a fish, but that doesn’t stop them from pretending.

Because they enjoy make-believe fishing so much, I recently came up with the idea to make a homemade fishing game for the hooligans. We would make fish that the kids could actually catch.

Now, if you’ve been following us for a while, you know how much we love making homemade toys and games, and how we like to make them using common household supplies and materials to help keep costs down.

For this fishing game, we used one of our favourite “free” craft supplies: styrofoam produce trays. They’re perfect for crafting with if you run them through the dishwasher first to sterilize them.

Making our fish was a fun art activity, and it was easy enough for even the youngest toddlers to participate in. Then I cut out our fish, and we rigged up some “fishing poles” and hooks so the kids would be able to actually catch their fish.

The preschoolers and toddlers love this simple fishing activity. Hand-eye co-ordination and concentration skills are strengthened as the kids dangle their fishing poles over the fish, moving their lines “just so” to make a catch.

What a great indoor activity for those days when it’s too cold or rainy to get out to play at our backyard pond.

Pop on over to CBC Parents to see how easy it is to make our fishing game using styrofoam produce trays and a few basic craft supplies.

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Jackie Currie

Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.