Kids LOVE to use strainers and they equally love to play with water. This DIY gross motor fish game will be a hit with your kids too. The best part? It's so simple to setup with things you already have in your home. Are you constantly on the lookout for gross motor activities? I'll be sharing a lot more soon!
Kids are also naturally fascinated with animals and fish. What's the deal with that? Even though I love to watch fish swim around, I'm not totally sure I like to have them as pets.
They don't interact with you, they just swim around.
They also don't greet you at the door like pups do.
Why fish? Lol
Anyway, I'll give an update on this blog if we ever do end up getting fish.
There are so many great gross motor activities for preschoolers, but I find the simplest ones are often the best ones. This sensory water tub is best setup in spring or summer, however you could still do it with warm water in winter. Although, then you will have the problem of kids possibly getting wet and potentially get sick because we all know what happens when kids + water happen.
Kids get wet. Kids want to play more.
Kids get sick because they're wet and cold.
Possibly better to use this in spring or summer so you don't come back here and leave me hate mail. ;)
Kids are also naturally fascinated with animals and fish. What's the deal with that? Even though I love to watch fish swim around, I'm not totally sure I like to have them as pets.
They don't interact with you, they just swim around.
They also don't greet you at the door like pups do.
Why fish? Lol
Anyway, I'll give an update on this blog if we ever do end up getting fish.
Gross Motor Activities for Preschool
Kids get wet. Kids want to play more.
Kids get sick because they're wet and cold.
Possibly better to use this in spring or summer so you don't come back here and leave me hate mail. ;)
Gross Motor DIY Fish Game
Materials:- 2 large tubs
- Plastic fish
- Farm animals (plastic toys)
- Small containers
- Two small tea strainers
You probably have all these on hand. You can definitely use the strainers you have right there in your kitchen so you don't really need to head out to buy these. However, you may need to find some plastic fish and farm animals.
How to set it up
Use one tub for the water, fish and farm animals. The other tub you can use to place the small containers and tape them to the bottom of the tub to act like 'feeding' plates for the animals. What they essentially need to do is discriminate between the 'farm animals' and the fish who live in water.
What I told the kids to do is to start using the strainers to 'save the farm animals' but if they happen to strain or catch a fish, they were to return it back to the water tub because fish live in water.
This allows us to target many different skills:
- Fine motor
- Sorting types of animals
- Using gross motor to ran back and forth from the two tubs
How to teach kids about animals
This simple activity would help kids start exploring the topic of animals, what they are, their types etc. Kids between the ages of 2-5 are naturally curious about animals. In my homeschool I used this activity with a 1.5 year old. She still loved it, however she could not sort the animals and that is not expected of her at that age.
So, if you have kids that age let them play with the strainer and explore the animals while talking about them to you.
That's the best way they learn.
Here's a picture of how we set up our tubs, you can see the tubs with the little containers as feeding stations. Such a fun game.
Let me know below in the comments if you've tried any water play sensory games before and if you have one on your blog, feel free to link to it!
