Sunday, April 14, 2013

Sea Stars and Seahorses: Ideas for a Below or Under the Sea Unit (Circletime Activities)

Deep below the ocean lies a glimmering world  full of exotic tropical fish, peculiar sea foliage and realms of unimaginable watery beauty. Each circle time my children and I delved into this majestic oasis through developmentally appropriate activities such as these:

Week 1 

Monday - We are Ocean Animals Naming and Name Matching Game 

Subjects: Language Arts: building on prior knowledge and naming of ocean animals

To Do: Children look at ocean animal, name it, and teacher gives the child the name label to place under the correct ocean animal they previously named.

Read before activity: Scuba Bunnies by Christine Loomis



Tuesday - Close and Faraway Ocean Animal Cards 

Subjects: Math: Recognizing differences in distance and creating sets and pairs

To Do: Each child will receive a card from the teacher. The teacher asks each child what the animal pictured on the card is and if it is near (aka close) or far away. If the same animal pictured on the card is the same animal (ex. close crab and far crab) have the child place next to each other to create a set.

Read before activity: Ocean Wonders 


Source of Game: Carson-Dellosa Materials

Wednesday - Seahorse Swimming Band Color and Listening Skills Worksheet (Mailbox Magazine Ocean Animals Book) 

Subjects: Language Arts: Listening skills/following verbal directions and Math: recognizing colors and numerical concepts.

To Do: Each child will receive a worksheet. Give children verbal directions to follow such as color the 4th seahorse yellow etc. Finish rest of worksheet or until childrens' attention spans wane.

Note: For very young preschoolers only use 5 seahorses instead of the 10 found on the worksheet.

Read before activity: One Lonely Seahorse by Saxton Freymann

I drew on the heart, triangle and numbers under the seahorses.


Thursday - Fish Sizing 

Subjects: Math- Ordering fish by size

To Do: Each child will receive a fish card. The teacher will go around the circle and ask the child who has the smallest fish etc. Continue until all the fish are in order from largest to smallest or smallest to largest.

Note: Start with 3 students from largest to smallest. Then give cards out to the rest of the group so that younger students do not get confused.

Read before Activity: Fidgety Fish by Ruth Galloway




Friday - Sea Animals with Shells Shadow Matching Game 

Subjects: Math: Distinguisng shadow shapes of animals and matching them to the correct animals and
Science: Learning about animals which live in shells.

To Do: Teacher will show children a shadow shape and they will match the correct animal to it.

Read before activity: Excerpts from What Lives in a Shell? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld and Clumsy Crab by Ruth Galloway

Source of Clipart: Carson-Dellosa 

Week 2 

Monday - Fish Match to Sea Anemone File Folder Game (AKA Colorful Clownfish File Folder Game) 

Subjects: Matching fish to the correctly colored sea anemone.

To Do: Teacher gives each child a different colored fish. During their turn, the children will match the correctly colored fish to the correctly colored sea anemone.

Read before activity: A Deep Blue Sea: A Book of Colors by Audrey Wood


Source of File Folder Game: Filefolderfun.com

This file folder game can be found by clicking on this link (Also available in black and white): http://www.filefolderfun.com/Pages/PreschoolColors/ColorfulClownfish.html

Tuesday - Fins Booklet (Used Fins booklet in Mailbox Magazine Ocean Animals book to create the words/ideas found on my fish cards) 

Subjects: Language Arts; Using descriptive language to describe fish feelings (ex. meanie fish), Math: numerical concepts (ex. 2 fish) and color concepts (ex. blue fish).

To Do: Teacher hands each child a fish. She then states a feeling, color or numerical concept depicted on the fish. The child with the fish described will place it in the center of the circle.

Read: Barry the Fish with Fingers by Sue Hendra

Die-cut Source: Cricut Cartridge and Darice Stickers were used for the fish faces. 

Wednesday - Classifying Invertebrates and Vertebrates 

Subjects: Science: Classifying animals by their physical descriptions and Math: charting collected data (if you decide to use a chart to display information)

To Do: After the teacher hands a vertebrate or invertebrate card to the children, they will flip over each of their animals to see if they are an invertebrate or vertebrate (a bone with an x refers to an invertebrate a bone without an x a vertebrate). The children will then place them on the chart under its categorical classification (if you decide to use, I did not)

Read before activity: Somewhere In the Ocean by Jennifer Ward and T.J. Marsh




Source of Clip art: Firstpalette.com and Carson-Dellosa. Bone paper die-cut from Cricut Cartridge. 


Thursday - Starfish (now referred to as sea stars) Sizing 

Subjects: Math: ordering starfish (sea stars) in order by size.

To Do: Teacher will give starfish (sea star) shapes to students. They will place them in order by size largest to smallest and vice versa.

Read: Hide-and-Seek Under the Sea published by Igloo Books

Extras: Played a rhyming body part game where students pointed to the area of the body suggested by the teacher such as nose and they acted out the rhyming word rose: they smelled a rose.

Subject: Language Arts: Rhyming and following verbal instructions Science: Learning about body parts Math: Positional awareness of body parts. Gross Motor: Pointing out and acting out words suggested by the teacher.

Swim Like a ...  Children acted out actions of several sea creatures such as fish, dolphins etc.

Subjects: Gross Motor: Acting out suggested sea animal actions


Friday - Placing I'm the Biggest Thing In  the Ocean Characters in sequential order on a magnetic board

Subjects: Math: Sequencing and Language Arts: Recognizing and naming sea animals and retelling a story through use of a magnetic board.

To Do: Teacher hands out story characters to students. As the teacher reads the story, the child holding the animal you are reading about will put it in sequential order on the magnetic board. Explain this concept to students beforehand.

Read during activity: I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry

Source of magnetic board characters: Kizclub.com

For this black and white pattern which I colored in using ink pads visit: http://www.kizclub.com/stories4.htm (This pattern is available in black and white and color) 








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