Goldfish Toddler Activities
Do your little ones love eating goldfish crackers? I know mine do! I created this Goldfish Themed Toddler Unit to bring a bit of under the sea fun to you and your little ones this week!
If you want to learn more about how to get started planning activities for your little ones, download my FREE guide for everything you need to know about the skill areas we incorporate into toddler school:
Lesson Components
This unit is made up of 5 lessons that will each work on the following activities:
- literacy/language
- sensory bin
- math and science activities
- fine motor activities
- gross motor activities
- art activities
Interested in downloading these goldfish activities that you can print and use right away? Click on the image or button below to check them out in my TpT shop!
Art Activities
Finding ways to integrate art into academic activities is always a hit in our house! Using this goldfish craft, we introduced the letter Gg and the /g/ sound. It’s also great for working on gluing with your child. We added googly eyes as a finishing touch, and it turned out adorable.
We loved this craft so much, it’s still hanging on our fridge! Your kiddo’s handprint is sure to make the most adorable goldfish. You can also use markers, crayons, or watercolors to color in the water. This is a fun craft your child will love and it will make a special keepsake of your child’s hand, all while reviewing and practicing the letter Gg.
Fine Motor Activities
Plastic tweezers are a great way to practice fine motor skills and build strength in your child’s hands and finger muscles. For this activity, your child will pick up goldfish crackers with plastic tweezers and transfer them to the black circles on the fish. This fine motor activity might take some practice, but it’s a great lesson on perseverance and not giving up. Perseverance is a great skill to have when your child heads to preschool and kindergarten!
If you see your child struggling to pick up the beads with the tweezers, then this activity can be modified by using pom pom balls. Don’t be afraid to modify so you can do what works best for your child’s skills. You know them best!
Learn even more about what fine motor skills are in this post: What are Fine Motor Skills?
Sensory Bins
Sensory bins are a household favorite for us and they are a great teaching tool. For this sensory activity, fill a bin with goldfish crackers. Add the upper and lowercase letter Gg cards to the bin. Your child will activate their senses as they scoop up the goldfish and letter cards. Then, they will try and match the upper and lowercase letters and sort them into two piles. To add a little extra fun to this bin, you can include a small net to scoop up the fish and the letters.
As a busy mom to two little ones, I love to reuse my sensory bin filler while putting together a new activity! For a new take on this bin, you’ll use shape puzzle piece cards inside the sensory bin with goldfish crackers. Your child will find all of the pieces and match them. As your child finds new shapes, review or introduce the name of the shape. You can also review the color of the shape, and how many sides the shape has.
Math Activities
1:1 counting is another essential skill to practice with your little ones. For this math activity, we used goldfish crackers to place the matching amount with the numeral in the fish tanks. When you do this, make sure to have your child count out loud as he or she places the fish in their tanks.
Patterns are another fun math skill to practice with goldfish crackers. While doing this activity, it’s important to use language like up, down, left, and right when your child is creating the patterns. This will help with language development, positional vocabulary, and of course, patterns!
These goldfish number puzzles were also a hit and a great way to practice counting and matching a set of objects to a numeral. You’ll help your little one count the number of fish and match the set to the correct number. You can include numbers 1-3 if your child is just starting out, or challenge them with larger sets and numbers as he or she becomes more confident.
I hope you found some great goldfish themed ideas to use at home with your little ones! We had so much fun with this goldfish unit and I know you will too! If you want to make teaching your toddler super simple and fun this week, check out my Goldfish Toddler School Unit for 5 complete lesson plans and all the printables you need.
And if you need even more Toddler School ideas, check out my Toddler School Curriculum for an entire year of learning!
I hope you enjoy every minute of playing and learning with your little ones!
This post may contain Amazon affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my affiliate links, which helps to support The Primary Brain blog. As always, I only recommend products that I love and all ideas shared are my own.
Written on April 15th, 2022 by Laurin Brainard