FISHING FOR LETTERS

Materials Needed

• Fishing container (ice cream tub, or
  any bowl, box or tub with cover)
• White acrylic paint
• Poster paint
• Paint brushes
• Palette
• Construction paper
• Felt tip pens
• Drinking straw or chopstick
• Small magnet
• Paper clips
• Scissors
• Scotch tape

  Steps

  	1.	Find a suitable fishing container. An ice cream tub, gift box, tissue box, paper bowl with cover, or similar container can be used.
  	2.	Make a hole at least 2 inches in diameter at the center of the container's cover.
  	3.	Cover your work area with a mat or with newspapers. Prime the container with white acrylic paint.

	4.	Let the paint dry thoroughly.
	5.	It's time to get the container ready for fishing by painting with poster paint. Paint the exterior blue to give it a sea/water theme. You may use other colors to accent it such as the green color I painted around the rim.
	6.	Paint some waves all around the blue walls of your container. You can also paint some fishes or other aquatic creatures.
	7.	Set aside to dry.
	8.	Let's prepare the alphabet letters. Cut approximately 1 in. x 1 in. squares from construction paper and write a letter on each square. Older kids can write the upper case letter on one side and the lower case letter on the other side of the square. A variation would be to write a letter on one side and draw an object beginning with that letter on the other side.
	9.	Attach a paper clip to each letter square.
	10.	Drop the letter squares into the fishing container.
	11.	Cut string to approximately 1 ½ to 2 feet in length. Tape one end of the string to a small magnet.
	12.	Tie the other end of the string to the end of a drinking straw or chopstick.
	13.	Use the fishing rod to "fish" for alphabet letters. Can you identify each letter that you catch?
	14.	You can also do a spelling game. Fish for a few letters and spell something from the letters you just caught.