- fishing pole
- magnet tied to a string
- several sets of magnetic letters “d,” “o,” “w,” and “n”
- word card down
- catch
- down
- first
- last
- letter
- magnet
- match
- second
- third
- word
MA Standards:
Foundational Skills: RF.PK.MA.1.d Recognize and name some uppercase letters of the alphabet and the lowercase letters in one’s own name.
Head Start Outcomes:
Literacy Knowledge/Alphabet Knowledge Recognizes that the letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 7 Develop familiarity with the forms of alphabet letters, awareness of print, and letter forms.
Fish for Letters (down)
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Fine Motor Skills, Letter Recognition, Matching, Vocabulary, Word Recognition
Display the down word card. Read the word together. Point to the letter “d” in the word and ask, What’s the first letter in the word down? Identify the second and third letters for children. Point to the letter “n” and ask, What’s the last letter in the word down? Model how to fish for the letters in the word down and arrange the letters to match the word on the word card. Then let children take turns fishing for down.
Adaptation: Family-based childcare educators and smaller group-based classrooms may want to do only one activity. Adapt the materials used if younger children will be working individually. Use dough in place of modeling clay and large pieces of straws and craft sticks in place of pipe cleaners and short straws. If doing the “Fish for Letters” activity, help younger children put the word together by saying each phoneme for them.