Fishy Learning

When I start a unit, I dig out everything in my house related to that subject. 

This past couple weeks it was fish.

I tried to find everything under our roof that had to do with fish.

I love doing this because it's a great way to rotate toys,

and it helps my kids cross reference everything we are learning about in our unit.

First I made a Quiet Time Box,

Lately our quiet times have become a little more academic.

She has been staying up for most of quiet time,

So I have had to find printables and other variety to keep her focused.

In this box are printables from Homeschool Creations and 1+1+1=1,

I have just slipped these into sheet protectors,

and had M. use a dry erase marker.

There is also a letter puzzle, magnetic fish, and lots of books!

Including Yertle the Turtle, The Pout-Pout Fish, and Exploring the Deep, Dark Sea.

Next I pulled out my Fish Manipulatives,

They look like this,

except mine didn't come with any books.

 

I actually got mine at an education conference {for free}

and I have used them a lot with the kids I have taught over the years, so I decided to use them with my kids.

P.S. I don't mean for this to be a commercial, go out and buy this post. I am just super visual and I thought you would like to see what I am talking about :)

I pulled out the numbers 1-6 and the dots into my touch and feel box, and had M. pull them out and match them.

She actually like doing this,

despite how serious she looks :).

Baby H. loved hooking them together too,

they have different textures on the back,

and he loved scratching those textures.

A Home for Hermit Crab

On with our ocean adventures!

Time to learn about Hermit Crabs...

We read the book, A Home for Hermit Crab

by Eric Carle

It is a cute story about a hermit crab who needs a new shell,

but he wants to decorate it,

so he goes around the ocean floor,

collecting things in the ocean that will make his shell more homey.

After we read the book we decided to make our own

 fancy hermit crab shell.

I pulled some colorful pages out of magazines.

and then she cut small pieces out.

I cut a square of contact paper, and taped it sticky side up.

You can see it taped to the blue file folder above.

You can find contact paper at the grocery store next to the shelf liners.

That made it so easy for her to cut out colorful pieces,

and stick them onto the paper to make a mosaic.

Then I painted her hand red,

to make it look like a hermit crab body.

After it dried,

I cut out the hand. 

I added some more contact paper on top,

 cut her magazine mosaic,

and drew a shell shape on top.

I think they turned cute!

Seriously this would be a great classroom craft.

super easy, and easy to make look great.

I know Mother's Day is past,

but this would be an easy way to make into

flower onto a Mom's Day card.

Just sayin'

:)



Life Cycle: Fish

The life cycle of a fish is so cool!

So we decided to act/dance/draw it out.

I got onto You tube, but the best fish life cycle video for kids is

Finding Nemo

I decided a fun way to do this would be to make a fish costume.

My inspiration came from a duck towel we have.

I cut out my fabric with pinking shears (so I didn't have to finish the edges.)

Don't be overwhelmed by using fabric.

You could make a small fish costume out of a brown grocery sack.

I also sewed a small fish for her to decorate.

She painted it with puff paint.

And added some fabric frills.

Then when the costume was complete we headed outside.

To represent the fish eggs she blew bubbles.

To represent the baby fish she ran around the yard

with the fish she had painted.

Then we went inside and put on her favorite music

and danced it out.

Dancing is a great way for children to understand sequencing.

This is her pretending to be a little fish egg.

Next she walked around on her knees to be a baby fish.

It was fun to have her pretend to be a fish!

These are the books we are reading with our fish theme.



Fishy Fun

Today I loaded everyone into the car,

and didn't tell them where we were going.

Surprise! Welcome to the Acquarium!

Before we went I reviewed some of the

great things we learned about fish.

So when we got there, she was pumped and ready to go.

She was obsessed with the tiny sea horse,

(Which is what she is looking at here.)

She would not put her hands in any touch tanks,

I don't blame her since a ray tried to jump out,

and nibble a little girls hand while we were there.

Yikes!

But she showed her bravery in other ways.

Like getting this close to an anaconda.

Eeek!

She was facinated with the adorable penguins,

Although they aren't fish, they were a

wonderful part of acquarium life.

After we finished we went back into the pirate ship,

and read lots of the books they had about fish.

While we were in there a mom rushed her kids out of there,

and said, "Let's keep going, this part is boring."

Miss S. looked at me and said,

"Mom, they should have stayed, books are Not boring!"

Yes!