Fishing in your classroom
The lake is frozen. What do the fish do?
Most people say “they sleep”. Half right — and the wrong half is the interesting one.
If the lake freezes, does all the water freeze?
Do they feel cold?
Where do they hide?
Do fish sleep all winter?
How do you fish through ice?
What about live bait?
One thing we will not tell you
One thing this page will not tell you: how thick ice must be to hold. It is not in our sources, and a rough guess there can cost a child their life. Ask the water body’s manager or an outfitter before stepping onto the ice.
For the teacher
- Ask the class first: do fish sleep all winter? Most will say yes. Then open the card. Being half wrong out loud is what makes it stick.
- The chain is the lesson: the perch keeps eating, so the walleye and the pike keep hunting. One species staying awake keeps three awake.
- Cold blood connects back to the anatomy board — it is one of the four traits that make a fish a fish.
- The ice-thickness paragraph is deliberate. Show it to the class: knowing what you do not know is part of knowing.