Preschool Express by Jean Warren

Make paint pads by pouring paint over folded paper towels placed in shallow pans. Then set out construction paper and let your children try one or more of these print-making activities.

	Press fish-shaped cookie cutters onto the paint pads, then onto the paper.
	Make prints using fish shapes cut from thin sponges and dipped into the paint.
	Stamp prints onto the paper with fish shapes carved out of potatoes.

FISH MURAL
Invite your children to fingerpaint a blue underwater scene on a piece of butcher paper. When the paint has dried, give them construction paper fish shapes to decorate with crayons or markers. Help them glue or tape their fish onto the blue butcher paper. Then help them add twisted pieces of green crepe paper for seaweed along with rock and shell shapes cut from colored paper.

LET'S GO FISHING

For the games below, cut fish shapes out of construction paper and place them in a large plastic tub.

	Color Fish: Fill the tub with several colors of fish. Ask your children to reach in and catch a red fish, a blue fish, and so on.
	Number Fish: Mark fish with numerals from 0 to 9. Invite the children fish for a 5 fish, an 8 fish, etc.
	Letter Fish: Print familiar alphabet letters on the fish shapes. Have the children go fishing for a B fish, an E fish, and so forth.

BIG FISH, LITTLE FISH
Cut small, medium-size, and large fish shapes out of heavy paper. Invite your children to use them for these games.

	Sort the fish by size into three piles.
	Count the number of small fish, medium-size fish, and large fish.
	Line up the fish from smallest to largest, then from largest to smallest.

SWIMMING FISH PUPPET
Make a fish puppet by gluing a craft stick handle onto a 3 ½-inch-long fish shape cut from posterboard. Draw lines of blue waves across the front side of a paper plate. With a craft knife, cut a horizontal slit across the middle of the plate between two lines of waves. Then, on the front side of the plate, stick the handle of the fish puppet down through the slit. To work the puppet, hold up the plate with the front side facing your group and move the handle back and forth on the back side of the plate so that the fish appears to be swimming in the blue waves. Use the puppet for telling stories or singing songs.

GOLDFISH AND OTHER PETS
Talk with your children about the kinds of pets people have. Then display a picture of a goldfish along with pictures of other pets, such as a dog, a cat, a lizard, and a hamster. Ask the children to compare the goldfish to each of the other pets. How is the fish different? How is it the same? If desired, follow up by bringing in a pet goldfish for your room.

WE ARE LITTLE FISH
Tune: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"
We are little fish
Swimming in the sea.
Watch us give our tails a Swish!
We're happy as can be.

Liz Ryerson

Invite your children to act out the song as you sing.

FISH SNACKS
Try one of the ideas below for snacktime.

	Spoon blue gelatin into clear-plastic cups and top each serving with a gummy fish.
	Tint whipped cream cheese blue, using food coloring. Invite your children to dip goldfish crackers into the "blue waves" before eating.