Pretend Play Fishing Indoor Play

Do you find that your children love pretend play? Here at our house, it is the NUMBER ONE activity for the younger children and always has been. Whether it be playing house, school or doctor the children become lost in the art of play. Today, we went on a “camping” trip and went “fishing” on a boat. It was highly entertaining and the children (ages 3 and 7) played independently for a solid hour. Since the children had a two-hour delay at school this morning, pretend play fishing was the perfect indoor activity.

There was not extensive preparation for the pretend play fishing. The kids wanted the following:

BOAT – they used the couch
TENT – they made a fort out of couch cushions
FISHING ROD – wooden dowel, string, and magnet (I helped create this)
FISH – cut out colored paper in the shape of fish and put paper clips on each fish

All set and ready to play. They hopped on their boat and set sail fishing as they went. Headed back to the tent for a bit, pretended to cook the fish over a fire and went fishing again and again.

In usual kid fashion, they came up with several ideas to extend the game. One child hid the fish in different rooms and the other child had to go and find all of them. They mastered fishing at the same time in order to catch each other’s fishing rods instead of the fish.

Overall, this was a SUPER easy and fun activity to keep the children busy.

Need more camping ideas? Check out the Camping Games and Activities packet that includes 25 fun puzzles, m, zes and games to play while on a camping trip, playing camping or anytime! Most of the activities can be completed with one person. A few games require more than one player. The Camping Games and Activities include: