1Prepare the fishing container.

Find a suitable fishing container like an ice cream tub, a tissue box or a cake box.

2Cut a hole on the lid.

Cut out a hole at least 3 inches in diameter at the center of the container's lid.

3Prime the container.

Paint the outside of the container with white acrylic paint.

This layer of paint hides the print on the tub or box and prepares the surface for the final colors of paint.

4Paint the container.

Once the layer of white paint dries, paint the container with various colors of tempera, poster paint or acrylic paint. You can make stripes, dots, swirls or other patterns. You can also paint an ocean theme or any design you like.

5Make paper squares or fishes.

Cut out several 1-inch squares or small fish shapes from construction paper. You can also print out any of these templates on A4 or Letter size paper:

• Fish shapes - Sets 4 to 6
• Squares - 1-inch squares
• Alphabet letter squares - skip Step 6 if you choose this

6Write alphabet letters.

Write a letter on each paper square or fish using colored markers or crayons.

If you intend to do a spelling activity, make sure to add more vowel tiles.

7Add paper clips.

Attach a paper clip to each paper square or fish.

8Put the letters in the container.

Once the paint dries on your container, place all the paper squares or fishes inside.

9Make a fishing pole.

Cut string to a length of about 1½ to 2 feet. Tape one end of the string to a small magnet. Tie the opposite end to the tip of a drinking straw or wooden dowel.

10Fish for letters.

Finally, have kids use the fishing rod to catch alphabet letters inside the container. The magnet on the fishing rod will attract the metal paper clips on the letter squares. Have kids identify each letter they catch.