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You are here: Home / DIY Tutorials / Gone Fishing – A Fishing Matching Game

June 21, 2012

Gone Fishing – A Fishing Matching Game

We had a little bit of fun going to summer camp with Design Dazzle this month. I took the kids “fishing” and came up with these fun fun (free) printable fish to catch. All the supplies for this game are likely in your house already and the kids can totally get involved in helping to craft everything.

It’ll be a few hours of summer fun and possibly a little bit of peace and quiet while the kids play. My two loved this game this week and were playing with it constantly–the only thing that trumped it was the cardboard box that showed up!

Everyone can participate in cutting and lacing up the fish, with a grown up there to put on a few finishing touches. Once the game is made, little kids can be thrilled by catching the fish with their little fishing rods, and older children can be challenged by playing a matching game with the shapes and colors on the backs of the fish.

To have all this summer camp fun, you’ll need:
  • Free fish printables from Frog Prince Paperie
  • Paper and printer
  • Yarn
  • Paper clips
  • Dowel rod

After you print the fish, you can make it an activity to cut them all out. There are 24 in all, so the help is likely to be welcome. After putting the white sides of the fish together and lining them up, take the hole puncher to the fish to create a fun lacing craft for the kids. To make this process easier, I wrapped a piece of tape around the end of my yarn so it would go easily through the holes.

I stuffed these little fish just a tiny bit so they would be more three dimensional; the scraps left over from cutting them out are just enough to plump them up. Before you tie off the lacing, put a little bit of stuffing on the inside.

The last step is to tie the loop on the fish. You’ll want to keep this loop on the short side; if it’s too long, it won’t stand up on its’ own and the kids will have a difficult time “catching” the fish.

The printables were designed with pairs of color/shaped fish. If just catching the fish is too easy, matching can be played to make it a little more challenging.

The fishing rod to “catch” the fish is easy to make and relatively non-lethal (unless they become light sabers like they did at my house.) Bend a paperclip into the shape of a hook and use yarn to attach it to a dowl rod. I’d recommend keeping the string on the shorter side to make it easier to catch fish if your kids are younger and still working on those hand eye coordination skills.

Happy fishing!

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Filed Under: DIY Tutorials, Featured, tutorials Tagged With: diy, fish, fishing game, free printable, kid craft, tutorial

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Comments

  1. Tenessa says

    June 21, 2012 at 6:24 am

    Cute summer idea! Love that the kiddo’s can do it themselves!!!

    Reply
    • Paula says

      June 21, 2012 at 8:52 am

      They love the “sewing” part and cutting out the fish just as much as playing with the light sabers, er…fishing rods. Love that they put the iPads down for this for so long!

      Reply
  2. Alison Fennell says

    June 23, 2012 at 1:56 am

    I love this idea as it is so engrossing for children and a real good way to teach hand-eye coordination to boot! Such fun.

    Reply
  3. Natalie @ Confetti Diaries says

    June 23, 2012 at 10:54 am

    What a fun idea! Especially during the oncoming summer heat wave. I love anything that will keep them having fun and away from the tv for a bit.

    Reply
  4. AlienAnessa says

    July 1, 2012 at 8:01 am

    What a fantabulous idea. Soooo versatile!

    Reply
  5. Stefani says

    July 5, 2013 at 4:34 pm

    Such a cute idea, adding numbers or letters would be a fun way to ‘teach’ while playing. I also think these would be really cute filled with candy and sewn on a sewing machine to be used as party favors for a pool or beach party. Or given to swim coaches and the end of swimming lessons. Thanks for the printable. FYI Scrib makes you upload or pay to get these.

    Reply
  6. Laurie says

    May 12, 2015 at 3:17 pm

    So fun! What a great idea to keep the little ones occupied for a while.
    Thank you for sharing with us at Brag About It!
    ~Laurie

    Reply
  7. More With Less Mom (@MoreWithLessMom) says

    May 12, 2015 at 7:36 pm

    Aww these are adorable. Hello from Project Inspired – sending you Like love!

    Reply
  8. Paula says

    May 14, 2015 at 8:39 pm

    My kids are going to love doing this with me this summer. I would love it if you would share this fabulous post at our WIW link party. I hope you can join us!

    Paula
    ivyandelephants.blogspot.com

    Reply
  9. Christine says

    May 19, 2015 at 8:14 am

    What a fun game!! I bet my daughters would love it!

    Reply
  10. Jaimi@The Stay-at-Home-Mom Survival Guide says

    May 19, 2015 at 3:11 pm

    What a cute free printable game! I love that this is a lacing activity too. Great for kids in multiple age groups-which is important in my house. Thanks so much for linking up at Wonderful Wednesday. I am featuring this this week!

    Reply
  11. Lorelai says

    May 20, 2015 at 5:34 pm

    Love this! Thanks for sharing at the #HomeMattersParty – We hope to see you again next week!
    ~Lorelai
    Life With Lorelai

    Reply
  12. Jessy @ The Life Jolie says

    May 21, 2015 at 1:31 pm

    This is so cute- I would have loved this as a kid. It kind of reminds me of a full size version of that fishing game with the magnets that we all played with as kids. Thanks for sharing!

    I stopped by from Cook it! Craft it! Share it!

    Reply
  13. Mdm Samm says

    June 7, 2015 at 4:03 am

    adorable with a capital A.

    Reply
  14. Annemarie says

    January 14, 2017 at 5:06 am

    Very cute! I came over from The Creative Collection. Would love it if you join my link party too. Best wishes, Annemarie

    Reply

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Meet Paula

My father came home from a trip for work when I was a little girl toting a huge (to me) book of fairy tales. I was instantly smitten with the beautiful illustrations and the stories that came alive from those worn pages. My favorite was always the frog prince…my mother read it to me over and over (and over.) Read More…

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