If you give a Punk a fish...

I love reading other Mommy/Teaching/Preschool/Home School blogs. And one of my favorites is Counting Coconuts. She uses the Montessori Method a lot, and makes some really interesting school tools. I have copied a couple of her ideas already. The most recent one I decided to make was a felt fishing "game".

I cut the fish from felt (freehand - they are all a little different). I sewed them shut with a bit of stuffing and a hardware nut (borrowed from the husband's garage) in the mouth of each.

A dowel, yarn, magnet and some hot glue later - we have a fishing pole! Each of the fish are numbered (1-10) on one side, and have dots to count on the other. So far we have played a game (numbers side up) where I ask him to fish for number ___ and he finds it, and another (dots side up) where he catches a random fish and we count the dots before revealing the numbers on the other side. I plan on using some flash cards or playing cards to add more interest to the game as we go on.