The Number Fishing Tuff Spot is a water-play number game built in a shallow tray. Ten foam fish, each numbered one to ten on the back, float in a tray of water. The kid sits in a play boat with a small fishing net, scoops out a fish, reads the number, and slots it in order into a cut pool noodle on the side. It is number recognition and ordering wrapped inside a wet, splashy game that a toddler will happily do until the water is all over the floor. It pairs with the nursery rhyme “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive.” Ages 2 to 5.
What you need:
- A shallow tray, the wide flat builder’s-tray kind, filled with a couple of inches of water. This is the sea.
- A play boat for the kid to sit in. A cardboard box works just as well as anything fancier. The boat is half the fun and none of the learning, which is exactly the right ratio for a toddler.
- A sheet of craft foam in any color. Foam floats, which is the whole reason it works here.
- A permanent marker for the fish faces and the numbers.
- A small fishing net. Smaller than you think. A big net is hard for little hands to control, and a child wielding a wet net at full arm span will soak everyone within range.
- A pool noodle for the fish stand. Cut short slits along it so each caught fish can slot in upright, like a row of numbered flags.
Making the fish and the stand
Draw ten simple fish shapes on the craft foam and cut them out. Add a face and fins to the front of each with the permanent marker so they look like fish. On the reverse, write a number from one to ten, one number per fish. Keep the numbers big and clear so a kid can read them through a dripping wet net.
For the stand, take the pool noodle and cut a row of short slits across the top with scissors. Each slit holds one fish upright. Write the numbers one to ten along the noodle next to the slits, so the kid can match each caught fish to its place and build the sequence as they go. That turns the catching into ordering, which is where the real number practice lives.
Playing the game
Float the fish in the tray, number-side down so the kid has to catch one before they know which number they have. Hand over the net. The first few catches are clumsy. Manipulating a floppy net to corner a floating foam fish is harder than it looks, and it took my son a good while to get the knack. He persevered, and getting soaked along the way did not slow him down at all. Dad and I, on the other hand, got thoroughly drenched ferrying fish from the tray to the boat.
Once a fish is caught, the kid reads the number on the back and slots it into the matching slit on the pool noodle. By the end the noodle holds a row of fish in order from one to ten, which is a quietly satisfying thing for a small person to have built. The whole game reinforces number recognition and ordering while the net work builds gross-motor control in the arms and shoulders.
For another number-ordering activity that gets a toddler moving, our Gross Motor Flower Number Line spreads numbered flowers across the floor for the kid to step and stretch between. For more sea creatures to color in once the tray is drained, our free mermaid coloring pages set covers fish, mermaids, and other underwater scenes.
The game adapts easily as the kid grows. Draw spots on the fish and have them match the count of spots to the written number. Write the number words on the noodle instead of the numerals and match numeral to word. Same tray, same net, same soaked parents, a slightly older skill. We have run all three versions over two summers and the tray has not yet lost its pull.