Ocean Fun

I have a mailbox in my classroom that I use to motivate the kids with treats, awards, special info, etc. I introduced our ocean unit by having the "mailman" leave us a large conch shell. We all listened to the sounds of the ocean and then I brought out a basket of various kinds of seashells and assorted plastic ocean creatures which we passed around and discussed. Then I showed the children how to use a stencil to draw ocean creatures. I left this basket of stuff along with a magnifying lens in our science center. Since my class this year is primarily made up of ESL students the focus of the unit this year was vocabulary and some basic facts. See below.

Vocabulary: lighthouse, fins, scales, gills, octopus, crab, lobster, shark, whale, jellyfish, starfish, school of fish, acquarium, names of the oceans

Facts: Ocean covers most of the world and is made of salt water. Fish breathe through gills and are cold blooded meaning that their body temperature is the same as their surroudings. Fish come in all different colors. Fish have fins that help them swim and balance in the water. Fish move their fins with muscles.

This "rainbow fish" is easily made with a computer CD. I found the fins and face in The Best of The Mailbox Theme Series/Ocean Animals for Preschool/Kindergarten . I copied them double sided so that this fish could hang from the ceiling.

This crab is made by cutting a paper plate in half. Paint both sides green. I cut the top pieces from the leftover half of the paper plate. The children can also draw a smile under the wiggly eyes. In the back you can see a sea star. They used to be called starfish but since they aren't really fish the appropriate name now is "sea star". I got the pattern for the sea star from the Mailbox magazine. The children were encouraged to color them yellow, pink, red or orange since real sea stars come in those colors. The students glued cheerios on.

I was short on time to complete this unit before we started our December gingerbread man theme so I put together this octopus myself. He was a big hit with the kids. This would be a good activity for the students to make to practice their fine motor skills of cutting. You can also incorporate patterning by making the rings an alternating AB pattern of black and orange. To help the younger kids complete this activity faster you can give them each a clothespin that they can put on their ring to hold it in place while the glue dries. They can work on cutting their next ring and just keep moving their clothespin clip along.

Another art idea not shown here that I actually use when we do pets is to make a goldfish bowl. Simply cut a paper plate in half. Students color it blue. Tear green construction paper for the sea grass/ seaweed. Students color a fish with wiggly eyes that they glue into the bowl.

We used real seashells as manipulatives to sort, graph, count,measure and create patterns. I also made up my own worksheets using clip art seashells. You can use a permanent marker and write numbers (or letters) on the big seashells and have the students put them in correct number order (or ABC order or matching upper to lower case). Estimate the number of seashells in a jar.

You can also use Goldfish crackers for counting, sorting, patterning, and graphing activities. They make different types including regular, cheese and pretzel. Try graphing the favorite. They also make teeny sized, regular and giant sized Goldfish crackers useful for sorting. Reproduce a picture of a goldfish bowl on a paper for kids and use for counting and addition/subtraction activities.

Below you can see a math worksheet I made. I hand drew an octopus and then programmed each leg with a number from 3-10. The children glued on the correct number of suckers (Cheerios) to each leg.

Read "The Rainbow Fish" and discuss sharing. Sing the sharing song below. Students can write using the writing prompt "I can share my..."

Read many non-fiction books (see book list). Discuss what it's like to be a fish. Ask what kind of fish would you like to be? What would you eat? Students draw a fish and the teacher can glue a photo of their face on to make a cute bulletin board called "A School of Funny Fish". An alternative that we used in our classroom was to draw ourselves as mermaids and mermen.

Class book idea: Diver,Diver what do you see? I see a ___________. This is modeled on the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?".

Sharing Song ( "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")

by Elizabeth McKinnon, Totline Publications Piggyback Songs

Share,share,share the toys.

It's so much fun to share.

I share with you, you share with me.

We share because we care.

Books

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, J.

Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni

What's it Like to be a Fish, non-fiction

The Mysterious Tadpole by Steven Kellogg

Tough Boris by Mem Fox

Comet's Nine Lives by Jan Brett

Somewhere in the Ocean- (This non-fiction book is part of a set I purchased from Scholastic. This set of very easy to read books has a teacher's reference in the back with facts about the topic of each page so you can pick and choose what you want to discuss.)

Grandma and the Pirates by Phoebe Gilman

Life in the Sea, non-fiction, Scholastic

Sharks, non-fiction, Scholastic

Whales and Dolphins, non-fiction, Scholastic

Pirate School by Cathy East Dubowski, Mark Dubowski

What Comes in a Shell, non-fiction, Scholastic

Sea Creatures, non-fiction, Scholastic

A Dolphin is Not a Fish, non-fiction, Scholastic

Ocean, non-fiction, Scholastic

Pass the Shark- Play this like Hot Potato with a puppet or stuffed animal.

Catch That Fish- Play this like Duck, Duck Goose. One student is a fish and the rest are fishermen.

There is a game available at Toys R Us ( I don't have the box anymore so I don't know the name.) with plastic numbered fish and a fishing hook. This game is well worth the investment as it will last for years. Another fun game by Milton Bradley is Fishing Around which is good for eye-hand coordination.

Two Rainbow Fish (Three Blind Mice)

Two rainbow fish,

See how they swim.

Their tailfins go left and their tailfins go right.

Their beautiful colors are quite a sight.

Did you ever see such a sight so bright-

As two rainbow fish.

Oceans (My Bonnie)

Atlantic's the name of an ocean.

Pacific and Indian, too.

The Artic is often forgotten.

I know my oceans-do you?

Mr. Lobster and Mrs. Crab (Old McDonald)

Mr. Lobster and Mrs. Crab pinch and snap all day.

With a pinch pinch here and a snap snap there.

Here a pinch, there a snap,everywhere a pinch snap.

Mr. Lobster and Mrs. Crab pinch and snap all day.

Science and Social Studies

Discuss swimming and floating. Do students know that it is easier to swim and float in seawater because it is salty? Demonstrate with this experiment. Fill a large glass half full with warm water. Slip a raw egg into the water. It will sink to the bottom. Slowly add one teaspoon of salt at a time (stirring gently)to the glass until the egg floats up.

Let students pretend to be pirates and reinforce mapping skills by having students create maps to where they have the treasure buried in the classroom-a handful of chocolate gold coins in a plastic baggie is probably sufficient. Students take turn hiding their treasure while the rest of the class is outside of the room. Reproduce the student's map and let groups of students hunt for the treasure. Make sure you have enough gold coins for everybody when the treasure is found.