Fish and Aquarium Activities – Patties Classroom

I loved these aquarium fish activities they had at Oriental Trading. I got them for my class a few years ago and the kids loved making them. They turned out so cute on a bulletin board too. The link for the Make Your Own Aquarium Sticker set is HERE. Another craft idea they had on making an aquarium out of craft sticks is HERE for a cute aquarium idea.

In the past when I’ve run out of funds I have used some pieces of blue craft foam I was given by a parent and I just cut out the shape of a goldfish bowl, 1 for each student. Then I bought foam fish in assorted colors for kids to put in their aquariums as they wished. It wasn’t super pretty, but it was fun and we used up some old foam that way. You could also do bookmarks. I’ve cut out 7 x 2 1/2 inch rectangles and had kids peel and stick the foam fish on those. Then I punched a hole in one end with a hold puncher and kids added 3 colors of blue yarn and braided it and added a bead to the bottom. It turned out okay too.

This idea is from Oriental Trading… I cut my own aquariums one year out of blue foam and had the kids attach peel and stick ocean animals foam fish at Oriental Trading.

But my favorite aquariums were ones we made last year. We painted paper plates blue and when they dried we added xeroxed copies of fish and coral or seaweed to the circles. Next time I would add some colorful tiny aquarium rocks from the fish store along the bottom and maybe even some brightly colored glitter stickers of tinier fish around the main colored fish. A link for some cool peel and stick peel and stick cute foam fish are HERE. That would add a lot.

The link to Our Classroom Aquariums is HERE. And here are some pictures. This was such a fun project.
Other activities could include;

We used thin cuts of crepe paper to make our seaweed looking strips…

By the sea…by the sea…by the beautiful sea….

It is at this triciarennea.blogspot.com LINK HERE.

I found a cute website that had some downloadable “fish” for you to make your “fishing” game. You could then get a dowel and a magnet and some string and make a fishing pole for your students for answering questions. She has other free printable animals too. It’s a fun site.

Meet the Dubiens blogger Jill Dubien made up this fishing pole with real twigs.
Her Blog tutorial for a cool magnet Fishing Pole is HERE.

Fishing Pole and Fish

OH WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE SUMMERTIME?

Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?
Do you fish in the stream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by?Is that what you do? So do I! Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool, or swing in a tree up high? Is that what you do? So do I! Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green? Do you march in parades, or drink lemonades, or count all the stars in the sky? Is that what you do? So do I!

This is a really fun song to do in the summer because all the kids are busy doing all of these very same things.

Fishing Pole and Fishing for Answering Questions about Ocean Animals

The kids love to come up and use the dowel with string and a round magnet tied onto the end. Then the laminated fish of every kind have large paper clips on them. The kids “GO FISHING “ to try to get the magnet to attach on to the metal paper clips and they have “caught” a fish. They love watching each other try to fish. You can use these fish during Music Time and have different songs taped on the back.