Ocean Animals: Week 1

We had a two week unit on ocean animals that was lots of fun! We started out by reading the book In the Sea by David Elliot. This book goes through many different animals that live in the ocean. During centers the students did their final drawing of Mat Man! It was so cool to compare their first drawing to their last, so much improvement! We had a new center this week, a grocery store! This was a huge hit with the students!

Our cash register. 

We also had a shell and gem counting center.

On Tuesday we read the book Number Find: Ocean by Charles Reasoner. We went through and had to find and count different ocean animals on each page. After reading, I had the students play an ocean animal counting game on the ipad. During centers the students got to make an ocean animal counting book for themselves!

We had the grocery store again as well.

Wednesday we studied dolphins! We read the book Dolphins by Carol K. Lindeen. We learned a new vocabulary word that day, blowhole. During centers the students made a beautiful dolphin by using a paint bag. I put a paper dolphin cut out in a bag and then squirted blue and pink paint inside. The students used their hands to spread the paint around and color the dolphin. They turned out to be so pretty!

We had another new center this week, an ocean sensory bin! This center was so fun for the kids!

Thursday morning we had a parent bring in a turtle to school. Of course the kids loved this!

During our lesson we read the book Whales by Carol K. Lindeen. We discussed the difference between whales and fish. I then gave each of the students a picture and they had to sort them as either a fish or a whale. During centers we played a describing sea shells game. I game each student a board containing pictures of different seashells. I would describe a shell and the students would have to find it on their board.

Friday we learned about sharks! We read the book Sharks by Carol K. Lindeen. After reading, we discussed some new vocabulary words: school of fish, gills, and fin. During centers we played a Fish 1:1 matching game. The students would roll a dice, say the number, and then place that many goldfish crackers on their boards.

We had a special visitor that day, my mom! It was fun having her come see my own classroom after me coming to visit her in her preschool classroom all of these years!

Since Sunday was mothers day we made a special gift for all of our moms!

Someone had some great naptime hair this week. Couldn’t resist taking a picture!