Invitation to Create: Fish Bowl

I love setting up activities that my kids can enjoy without directions (apart from - don't pour all the water out on the carpeted floor). This was a simple invitation to create and the theme was a fish bowl. Since my kids are always so curious when they see fish tanks, I figured they would enjoy creating their own. But of course, we used fake fish because I don't think real fish with appreciate being played with like this!

We used: 

a platter (or something to contain the water)

a small decorative glass/plastic bowl (I believe these can be found for about $1 at dollar stores or craft stores)

plastic fish (ours were bought at a party store - Safari Ltd. fish and other fish toys would work)

shells

glass gems

a funnel (or three)

enough water to mostly fill the fish bowl (I left it in a cup for the kids to pour through the funnel themselves)

(you can also use sand or rocks or aquarium gravel)

The kids were so excited to use the funnels! This was their first experience with them and they were completely amazed by what they could do with them! But mainly they used them to funnel water into the bowl and fill it up. They took turns (there were three different sizes) and whenever they switched funnels, they added shells. 

When it was full of water they began adding fish. The fish took turns swimming around in the bowls. Bean even gave a few of them names! (Which rarely happens!)

Bean declared that this fish bowl needed plants, so she went and grabbed a couple of our fake tank plants.

Doesn't this fish bowl look lovely? It's crowded, sure, but all the fish got along and that's what really matters!

This was a really interesting activity for the kids. It was perfect for them to learn how to carefully pour, as well as being gentle with the glass bowl. Obviously I did not leave them alone with the glass bowl, but I believe that they need to learn how to carefully handle glass. This was a fun activity to create their own little fish bowl to play with!

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