Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood is one of the most treasured books in our home. We love all Audrey Wood’s books, especially this story, because of its clever rhyme and rhythm, making children want to read it repeatedly. I created some easy-to-set-up activities for my children to play and create after reading this book to add to the counting fun.

Ten Little Fish by Audrey wood
Skill: Counting 1-10 (Counting up to ten, and down to one)
Ages: Baby-5 yrs
My children love, love, love this book! They love the colorful illustrations, the rhyme, and turning the pages quickly to continue the counting in the story. For example, “There are ten little fish, swimming in a line. One dives down, and now there are…” The kids try and flip the page quickly to get to yell, “nine!” (Ten Little Fish, Wood).
We already have to buy a new copy since our copy has been worn from reading it so often.
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Counting Craft with Ten Little Fish by Audrey wood
My daughter and I made ten little fish out of paper after reading the book. I made a model fish as a template to trace and cut out. My daughter designed the fish after looking back through the book for ideas. I laminated the fish to help make them last longer. Then, we had fun counting and retelling the story.

Materials for Counting Fish Craft:
- Paper
- Crayons or markers
- Scissors
- Laminator
Process & Play Ideas:
- Draw ten fish on paper or let your child design their own fish. Another way to do this is to make one template fish, then line up ten sheets of paper and cut the fish shape out at one time, as shown below.
- Color and decorate the fish.
- Laminate the completed fish.
- Then cut out all ten fish.

After we cut out the fish, my daughter went back to the book to line them up as the book does. Then I made a sensory bin to use the fish as part of the play.
For additional ocean-themed play ideas please visit my post Best Ocean Activities and Books for Preschool Learning at Home.
Sensory Bin with Ten Little Fish

Materials for Ten Little Fish Sensory Bin
- Sensory bin
- Kinetic sand
- Number blocks (Ours are from a puzzle but Sumblox re also amazing to use for this)
- Ten little paper fish
- Ocean figures (Lakeshore Learning has a huge tub of animal figurines- not affiliate link)
- Book Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood
- Magnetic chips
- Tool Bin: Scoops, cups, magnetic wands

We layered a tray with kinetic sand and wooden numbers for hands-on learning activity. My kids had the fish dance around the tray while I reread the book, and we continued to count our fish. In their tool bin for this kit, I added some ocean figures to continue playing and making more connections to counting other sea creatures.
Hidden items at the base of the tray Bugzy playing with the sensory bin.
For more Audrey Wood’s book ideas, please visit my post Best Activities and Lessons for Preschool Children using Books Written by Audrey Wood. She is my all-time favorite children’s book author, and we read her books constantly at our house. Here is her website for even more resources and book information.
Thank you so much for visiting Live Learn Literacy. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have other books you would like educational activities to connect to, please contact me at ChrisC@morenomade.com or on Instagram @LiveLearnLiteracy.
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