I loved this activity the moment I spotted it on Teaching Mama, but one problem prevented us from doing it right away: store-bought goldfish are not vegan, not even the pretzels!

Luckily, I have a fish-shaped cookie cutter from an old project, and could make a batch at home (this time I used the recipe from Nature’s Path, with regular flour and mixing by hand instead of in a food processor. Veronika was so excited seeing the fish crackers in the oven, and couldn’t wait to see what we’d do with them (and to taste them!).

As the fish baked in the oven, I drew six fish bowls with marker on a piece of white poster board, and labeled them 1-6.

Ding! The fish were done. Well of course first we tried them for a snack. Then I set out a bowl of the fish along with a pair of oversize tweezers and the fishbowl chart.

I had Veronika name each number as review; she can recognize numerals up to 10 now. Next, I told her we had to fill each fish bowl with the correct number of fish! I showed her how to pinch up one fish with the tweezers and transfer to the bowl marked 1.

Working together, we pinched and transferred and counted to fill each bowl.

And of course there was lots of happy snacking along the way.