A magnetic fishing game is a classic children’s toy and something you can easily make at home. We love to use ours with our frog pond small world play. I also recently shared how we use our fishing game to learn colours, numbers and size sorting. You can read about the various games we play here.

Here’s a brief tutorial for how I made our fishing game. If you would like to extend the learning opportunities with your own fishing game, and play the games that I talked about in this post, then here are some tips to keep in mind.

For size sorting games,  make the fish different sizes.

To learn about colours then make each fish a different colour.

For counting games, embellish each fish with a different number of beads.

You will need:
Pencil
paper
scissors
felt of various colours
Sewing thread and needle
buttons and beads for decoration
Washers or paperclips
Wadding for stuffing the fish (Optional)
A twig or piece of dowel (for fishing rod)
String or wool (for fishing line)
Magnet

How to make a DIY Magnetic Fishing Game

1. Use the pencil to draw some fish shaped templates onto the paper and cut them out. I just drew mine freehand and made each fish slightly different.

2. Hold or pin the paper templates onto the felt and cut around the template outline. If you are planning on making stuffed fish like I did, then cut out two layers of felt for each template. If you don’t want to fill your fish, simply cut out one layer of felt.

3. Use the sewing thread and needle to attach beads and buttons to each fish. I used a small button for the fish eye. Add a different number of beads to each fish if you want to play number games with the fish.

4. If you are making single-layer fish, then skip ahead to step 5. If you are making stuffed fish like mine, then attach the two layers of felt together using  buttonhole stitch. Before completely enclosing the hem, fill the fish with wadding and then sew shut.

5. Attach a washer (or paperclip) to the mouth. I added the washer after I had completed each fish but if you could add it on while you are sewing the buttonhole stitch around the outside of the fish in step 4.

6. We made our rod with a twig we found in our yard. You could also use a piece of dowel. Simply cut to size, attach some string (we used some pretty multi-coloured wool) and tie a magnet to the end.

You’re done! Happy fishing!

There are so many ways to make a magnetic fishing game and you certainly don’t have to sew the fish or even use felt. You could simply cut out some fish using coloured paper  and attach a paperclip to each one. You could still make them different sizes and colours, and to use them for counting games, simply draw a different number of dots or shapes on each one. Here are some more ideas for creating your own magnetic fishing game.

Go Fish Maths Game – Nurturestore

Fishing for Words – 3 Dinosaurs

Pretend Camping with Bailey Goes Camping – 2 Big 2 Little

Fishing for Letters – Growing a Jeweled Rose

Science Math and Reading, All in One – Creekside Learning

Quick DIY Fishing Game – Glittering Muffins

Water Table Fishing – In Lieu of Preschool

Fishin’ In The Kitchen – Sugarsnips

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