There Are Plenty of Fish in the Sea...

I live in the desert. I can teach lessons about cacti and coyotes in my sleep. Although I love the desert, it is always so fun to teach lessons about topics not so familiar to me or my students.

For our "Relationship"theme we read "Rainbow Fish and the Whale" by Marcus Pfister. I love this book and it sparked so much imagination and creativity in my little learners.

For a circle time activity, the students tasted 3 different goldfish (although I think the flavor is the same and only the color is different)! Then the students colored a fish their favorite color and matched it to the same color fish bowl. Then we had a discussion about the results using the words more, less, least, and most.

We made 3D sea shells by mixing shaving cream, tempra paint, and glue. The students LOVE using this on their artwork and it looks so cool when it dries!

We also made rainbow fish using 3 different size triangles. First, we did a lesson on shapes and triangles and sorted small, medium, and large. The kids decorated their fish any way they wanted, using different materials we set out.

We made 2 different types of jellyfish. My favorite was made with bubble wrap and tempra paint. The kids sponge painted the whale and the coral. We also made handprint crabs and water colored the border. Even with all the fun sea creatures, the biggest hit was taking sand from the playground to create the ocean floor. It's always the most simple activities that are the favorites! 

Other activities we did with this unit included plastic fish with water in the sensory table, felt board fish scenes, and fishing for shapes and colors.