Years ago we made an edible zoo small world. The kids had so much fun using different elements to build their own little zoo. Over the years they’ve asked to make a few different edible variations, and this edible fish small world sensory play invitation is a super simple version that goes great with a fish theme or ocean theme for toddlers and preschoolers. You’ll only need two ingredients and some eager little hands to dive in and play.
Get a full week of fish theme lesson plans for
Home Preschool or your Preschool Classroom.
Materials for Edible Fish Small World Sensory Play
- Blue gelatin-We used two large 6 oz. boxes of Jell-o and followed the directions on the box for Jigglers. I went ahead and made the Jell-o in a baking pan so we didn’t have to transfer it, but you can get creative with your bin of choice!
- Colorful, edible fish-We found new colorful Swedish Fish at our local Target, but they do have a few versions available on Amazon.
- Jumbo tweezers or another fine motor tool of your choice (optional)
- Kids with clean hands if you want to let them eat this afterward 😉
See Our Fish Sensory Bin in Action
Watch this short video to see how we played with our fish sensory bin. Then read on for more details.
Dive In!
I cut the gelatin into cubes but left it relatively untouched because my youngest wanted to squish it up and create her own ocean all by herself. This is an excellent way to work in more fine motor practice.
Once her fingers got a bit tired she decided she needed a tool to work on her ocean a bit more. She used a masher, and this really helped to break up the gelatin.
Then it was time for her fish to go swimming. Adding the fish is especially fun for toddlers…they love poking and squishing things, so burying the fish in the gelatin is loads of fun for them!
For older kids who are ready for more of a fine motor challenge you can use tongs or tweezers for kids to go “fishing”. Those little fish are slippery, so it’s quite the task to catch them!
You can extend the learning in this edible fish small world sensory play a bit more by:
- incorporating counting as kids add or remove the fish from the sensory bin
- working on sorting and having kids sort the fish by color
- practicing patterning with the fish
And when you’re done have a refreshing squish snack!
Get a Full Week of Fish Theme Learning and Play
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
This set includes active hands-on learning ideas and the following printables:
1) 1-15 Fish and Fish Bowl Counting Mats
2) Uppercase Letter Fish Cards
3) Lowercase Letter Bubble Cards
4) 0-31 Fish Number Cards
5) Fish Patterning and Sorting Cards
6) Fish Roll and Graph Math Game
7) Word Segmenting Fish
8) Shape Fish
9) Fish Word Building Mats
10) Fish Size Ordering and Sorting Cards
Get Your Lesson Plans
Home Preschool Fish Theme Lesson Plans
Preschool Classroom Fish Theme Lesson Plans
More Fish Activities
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