Help your child learn the alphabet with this fun Saturday craft

Is your child battling to learn the alphabet? Why not spend the morning doing something fun and educational with your child by making this fun fishing for letters craft?

What you need

• Empty ice-cream tub with lid
• White acrylic paint
• Tempera, poster paint or acrylic paint in various colours
• Paintbrush
• Construction paper
• Coloured markers or crayons
• Drinking straw 
• Small magnet
• Paper clips
• Scissors
• String
• Transparent tape

How to make it

1. Cut a hole in the ice-cream tub lid. It should be at least 7cm in diameter.
2. Use acrylic paint to paint the outside of the tub and its lid white. This paint layer conceals the print on the tub and prepares the surface for the final paint colours.
3. After the white paint layer has dried, paint the container with various colours of poster paint or acrylic paint. Stripes, dots, swirls, and other designs can be created. 
4. Make a few 2-cm squares or little fish shapes out of construction paper. 
5. Using coloured markers or crayons, write a letter on each paper square or fish.
6. Attach a paper clip to each square or fish.
7. Fill the tub with the letters.
8. Construct a fishing pole by using a straw. Attach a piece of string to one end of the straw and wrap it around a tiny magnet. Tie the opposite end of the string to the end of the straw.
9. Let your child use the fishing rod to catch alphabet letters within the tub. The magnet on the fishing rod will attract the metal paper clips on the letter squares.
10. Allow the children to name each letter they “catch” and use them to spell short words.