Blogger / 27 November, 2025 / Nanny Anita
This fish colour sorting activity was inspired (in part) by the book “The Rainbow Fish”. Although it looks time consuming to set up, it doesn’t have to be. If you have been following along with my crafts and activities for any time, you would have realised I like to go the extra mile when setting things up.
Make sure you follow my sensory board on Pinterest for more ideas. Don’t forget to save the pin for later.
To make your own fish colour sorting activity you will need:
- Cardboard
- Dried chickpeas/ pom poms/ felt balls
- Tweezers
- Paint (optional 1)
- Loo roll (option 1 and 2)
- Scissors (option 1)
- Coloured dot stickers (option 2)
- Small bowls/ silicone cupcake wrapper (option 3)
- Coloured paper (option 3)
I am actually going to give a couple of options on how you could set this activity up, from most time consuming to least time consuming. Before you set it up though you will need to decide on a filler. You could use dried chickpeas that you have dyed with paint or if your child is still putting things in your mouth, you could use larger pom poms or felt balls.
For any of the options start by drawing a big fish on a piece of cardboard.
Option 1
Paint your fish. Then cut up the loo roll into slices and stick them into the body of the fish. These will become the place to put the different coloured fillings.
When those are in place paint the inside of each of those slices a different colour. You should end up with a lovely rainbow looking fish.
Option 2
For this one you don’t need to use any paint. Simply cut up the loo roll into strips and glue them into place, just like in option 1. After the glue has dried, instead of using paint stick a coloured dot sticker in the middle of each of them instead.
Option 3
Place some small bowls/containers/silicone cupcake wrappers in the body of the fish. If they are coloured, great. If not, you can simply add a coloured piece of paper to the bottom of them.
When your activity is ready to go add your fish to a tray with your filler and some tweezers. The idea of the activity is to try and encourage your little ones to sort the colours into their correct sections using the tweezers. But is often the case it is down to your little one with how they will play with it.
If you enjoyed this fish colour sorting activity, be sure to check out my little mouse busy bag, rainbow stacking stones, and rainbow fish painting.
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