Learn Numbers Flat Fish

Learn Numbers Flat Fish - There are lots of play options here.

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish... they're all here. These colorful foam fish will help kids develop number skills through addition, subtraction, counting by 1's and 10's, comparing, matching and reading. Sort them by color, texture, number or symbol. Line them up in number order, pattern sequence by color or texture, or by an equation. It even comes with two yellow laces for stringing.

 When I looked this up on Amazon I see that you can buy the book and cards that you see above as a supplement, or it appears you can buy everything together as a kit. I have just the fish, and the books and cards are now out of print (School Specialty Publishing). Maybe I'll stumble onto them somewhere down the road.
 
The fish are all the same size, 4" across at the longest point and 3/8" thick. They all look the same with a hole for the mouth and a little bump at the other end of the tail. Connecting the bumps and the holes (tabs and blanks in jigsaw puzzle jargon) will give you a long line of fish. The fish come in six colors (red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple) and they are flat on one side and textured on the other. There are six different textures and all fish of one color have the same texture. On the flat side there will be printed either a number, a word for a number, a set of dots to count, or a mathematical symbol. The lace fits easily into the hole but will need to be pulled through, they do not just drop through. The laces are 33" long and the plastic lace tips are 5/8" long. Fish include:

• Orange - 10 fish with dots - (One through 10)
• Purple - 6 with symbols (2=, 2-, 2+) and one with the number 100
• Yellow -  6 with numbers spelled out (one through six)
• Red - 9 with numbers (One through nine)
• Blue - 20 with numbers (10-19)
• Green - 8 with numbers (20-90)

Try this:

• Flip the fish to the blank side and line them up in a pattern such as blue/green/blue/green or yellow/purple/red/yellow/purple/red, etc.
• Line up an equation such as 10 + 7 = and let the individual add the last fish.
• Line them up in numerical order forward or backward.
• Line them up skip counting by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, etc.
• Stack them. How high can you go without toppling them?
• Turn all the numbered fish face up, then ask a question such as choose all the fish that are divisible by 2.
• String all the fish with a certain pattern. How long will it take them to recognize that they are looking for a single fish color?
• Connect several fish to see how many you can hold up without touching the floor. Raise your arm up as high as you can.
•  Stack all the fish by color. Which stack has the most? How many are there?
• Turn the fish at different angles when playing with them so they will have to be recognized in different orientations.
• Put the fish back into the jar by stacks. If you just randomly throw them in, you will have a tough time fitting them all in and getting the lid back on.
• Work on visual discrimination,visual form constancy, figure ground, eye-hand coordination, manual dexterity, coordinated use of both hands, tactile awareness, executive functioning skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation
  

In the jar: 50 fish, 2 laces