The Barefoot Teacher

If you haven't read "What's in the Ocean?" Activities for Kids - Part 1, you'll want to read that first. There are a lot of FREE downloads you won't want to miss!

This week, we continued our exploration of what exactly is in the ocean.

I'm going to show you a ton more activities (including free downloads) that you can use with your students.

But before we dive in, let me show you an Ocean Themed Color-By-Number Resource that you can download right now for absolutely FREE!

Check out this FREE Ocean Color-By-Number Download.

Use it for fast finishers, recess time, to reinforce number and color recognition, or just for fun!

We also took a look at the land that borders the ocean. You know it best as...

THE BEACH! Woo-hoo!

I found an adorable little series called Stella and Sam by
Mary-Louise Gay that I definitely will be using again in the future. The
one I used for this theme was Stella Star of the Sea.

Stella and her little brother spend the day at the sea.
Stella has been to the sea before and knows all its secrets,
but Sam has so many questions!

We talked about the various things you would find as
you walked along the beach. Starfish was one of the
first answers the kids gave. I found that the kids mostly only know
that a starfish had five arms and "stuck" on to things!

I found some neat videos that helped the students

understand more about them:

We learned that although we call them "starfish", their real name is

"sea stars" and they are not a fish at all! They do not have gills, scales, or fins like fish do and they do not move the same through the water.

Fish use their tails to push them forward in the water,

but a sea star uses tiny tube suction feet to
help them move along.

Watch how they move.
(Click to the side of the play arrow.)

This next video shows how a starfish uses its rays (or arms)

and the suction tube feet underneath to flip over.

We learned an amazing ability that the sea stars have...

They can RE-GROW their arms!

This one shows a starfish being fed.

We also learned that...

Starfish have spines on their backs that they use for protection.

We made a craft that emphasizes these spines.

First, we painted the starfish a tan color from the

FREE starfish template I found.
We cut it out and glue it to a blue "ocean" background.

Then we painted it again and sprinkled rice
on it to represent the starfish's spines.

I made a sentence template for the kids to
cut out so they could glue on:
"The spines give the sea star protection."

They turned out great! We hung them around our classroom for decoration:

We also spent some time exploring jellyfish.

Did you know...

… some jellyfish are bigger than a human

and others are as small as a pinhead?

… people in some countries eat jellyfish?

… jellyfish have no brain but some kinds have eyes?

… that jellyfish are mainly made up of water and protein?

… a group of jellyfish is called a smack?

Learned something new, didn't you?!

I found this great link on

that let us really explore jellyfish.

Click here to see it.

We got to read about them, watch a short video, see a map, print out a trading card, and even email an e-card to our principal!

We watched some really neat videos that let us see jelly fish in action.

...watched a jellyfish dance...

...saw a jellyfish get eaten by a sea turtle...

...and learned about a relative of the jellyfish-

the Manowar!

We made our very own jellyfish using balloons and streamers!

First, we cut strips of streamers into skinny strips.

I taught the kids how to use a tape dispenser...
they don't have that lesson in the curriculum! (wink)

Then we taped them onto the bottom half of the balloon.

We added some eyeballs...even though
we know jellyfish don't have eyes.
Before you knew it, our classroom was swarming with jellyfish!

Did I mention we got a new class pet?!
Why, it's a jelly fish, of course!

Hard to see it, but it's in there!

First, fill one of the bottom corners with water and rubber-band it closed.

Now, I should say that the directions I used were unclear as to
how big the corner of water should be. Just think to yourself that
it has to be able to squeeze into a 2 Liter jug.

Then we cut the remainder of the baggie into strips.
And trimmed some to be shorter than others.

The kids decided his name was going to be "Squishy."
So we stuffed Squishy into the empty 2 Liter jug.

Then we filled up the bottle to the top with water and added a few

drops of blue food coloring to accent the look.

(Shout out to the wonderful teacher across the hall

who loaned me her blue food coloring since I forgot mine!)

Get your very own Jelly Fish in a bottle directions here.

I also sent home instructions on
how to make jelly fish flashlights!

Click here to make a flashlight for yourself!

We didn't make these...but I thought about it!

Maybe next year.

Meanwhile, author Jane Clarke introduced us
to a new friend named Gilbert.

I love how this book enhances the learning we did on remoras as well.

We followed up with a great sequel:

And on a different day, we read another book
about our new friend titled:

Continuing our exploration of sharks, we worked on one
of my favorite labeling activities....

First we used the smart board to
learn andtalk about the various parts of a shark.

Then we spread out on the carpet
with clipboards and filled in our sheet.

We also cut out the parts and glued them on.

Go to Regina Davis's store to find this shark labeling writing activity.

Have you seen this awesome shark video before?
(Click to the side of the play arrow.)

I could sing that song all day long! Ha!

In this next book...

...Stanley the fish encounters a scary shark as
he is searches for his school of friends.

Most of all, I love the vivid colors author/illustrator,
Matt Buckingham, uses in this book.

One of our writing times brought out all kinds of fishy stories!
These are some of Deanna Jump's writing sheets that
we've been using this year.

I gave the students the following prompt:

If you could be any ocean animal in the world, what would you be?
And what would you do?

Here are a couple of responses!

"I'm a jellyfish. I'm stinging people."

and this one...

"I am a yarn fish. And I hide."

I don't know what a yarn fish is...so don't ask!

In other beach-y news...

I buried a bunch of different types of shells in the
bottom of a foil pan and covered them more with sand.

Then we explored and compared/contrasted the different
shells as we found them. I had enough so that the kids could
each pick one to take home.
Some pieces of coral were even found in there!

I also had ordered these fun sandcastle picture frames

from Oriental Trading. This craft is a great activity for practicing
patience and self-control with glue! Ha!

First we punched out all the pieces.

Then we slowly started putting it all together.

Before we knew it, it was done!

Wrapping things up,

We had a special visitor today...

We had a guest teacher come in and give us a little demonstration and tutorial on how to use and put on scuba equipment!

The kids were absolutely thrilled! They listened completely
bug-eyed and had a million questions for her!
It was quite a special treat!

Well, this diver is wiped out from all that ocean exploration we did!
There are 8 more days left of students in attendance.

14 more days til summer break.

(Not that I'm counting...)

Til next time...

bek

Find more Ocean Activities than you know what to do with for your Preschool & Kindergarten aged littles! I've included art & crafts, books, freebies, literacy activities, & more.

Last week our theme was "ocean."
When preparing lessons for our ocean unit, I have to admit that there were SO many ocean activities, books, videos, and more to choose from, that it was a bit overwhelming for me. I had a hard time narrowing down what to use in my classroom!

So we are actually going to do two weeks of ocean study this year. That way I can fit more in...I mean, it does tend to be a favorite unit every year, so I'm sure the kids won't mind! {wink}

I'm going to split everything we're doing into two different posts. I'll link Part 2 at the bottom.
By the end of them, you'll have more Ocean Themed Activities than you'll know what to do with!
And many of them are FREE!

So let's get started...
Our big questions for the week was simply, "What is in the ocean?" After learning that the ocean is more than half of our world, we wondered what on Earth is in it besides water!

We began our study with this "What is in the Ocean?" emergent reader.

It is a cut and paste activity reader, which allowed the kids to be a little more interactive with the words and kept them more engaged than some might typically be.

They to read the words on each page of the book and determine which picture needed to be glued on the page. They loved it!

Here are what the pieces to cut out look like:

Click HERE to get this reader.

We also had a 'tickly' good time exploring octopi. What a silly word! The kids had fun saying it...and I may have too.

We read this great book by Ruth Galloway.

Tickly Octopus thought using this tentacles to tickle other creatures was fun! However, they didn't like it at all. However, they didn't like it at all. One day, he tickled Oyster while she was sleeping. It startled her so much that she dropped her pearl deep into the ocean. Feeling bad, Tickly Octopus went in search for it and discovered he had a lot of special abilities that he didn't know about.

After we read this book, we made an octopus craft!

To make this octopus, start out by cutting a large piece of construction paper "hot dog style" and pass one to each student. Then take that same size of paper and cut it into eight equal parts for the tentacles. Use Q-Tips to paint orange dots. Less mess, and more controlled polka dots!

While the kids were painting, I drew out some silly eyeballs. One big and one small for each kid.

No template needed. You want them to be unique, silly, and fun!

The kids especially liked that I came to each table to draw out their eyeballs special for just them. Of course, you could have your students draw their own eyeballs as well.

They cut out their eyes and glued them in the middle. They then attached the eight tentacles, paint side down. Using a pencil, they rolled each of the tentacles and then "squeezed" them to help them hold a curl.

Ta-dah! It's done!

We love how it looks when they are all "swimming" together in our room!

We learned about a crazy octopus called the Mimic Octopus. Not only does it change color, but it changes its behaviors and shapes as well, in order to mimic other creatures in the water in order to protect itself.

Click to see the Crazy Octopus Video!

In other fishy matters, I found EXACTLY what I needed to compliment exploring fish at Kohls! I absolutely love the Kohl's Cares books and accessories. Have you seen this charity? Each item is only $5...what a steal!

Well, when I was there, I found Deborah Diesen's Pout Pout Fish there.

Not just the book...but the plush as well!

Did I mention it was only $5?!

And this bag...

What I'm really going to do with this bag, I don't know yet. But I'll think of something and the kids really thought it was cool to see! I let some of them take turns carrying it around.

After reading the books and doing some reading activities with them, we did this adorable craft and writing activity.

First, we traced and cut out the Pout Pout Fish pieces from the FREE template I found (see below).

Then, we wrote about that things make us pout and smile.

We put them on black paper because in Pout Pout Fish in the Big Dark, he has to swim in the big deep where there is no light.

They turned out great!

Click HERE to get a free copy of the fish template and writing activity!

AND...

Here is a video of the story being read aloud online.

The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
I also found both a puppet show and a rap version of the Pout Pout Fish!

It was fun to compare and contrast the different versions.

Did I mention that one of the days I was feeling a little crabby? Because the next animal we learned about was really quite snappy!

Have you seen the book Clumsy Crab? Another Ruth Galloway favorite!

It comes on CD Too.

This crab's claws are always getting in the way, until it comes time to save Octopus! It's by snipping away the seaweed that Octopus is stuck in, that helps this crab learn to value his large claws.

While making our own crabs, we discovered the reason behind why the crab walks sideways! We also found that it's a lot harder for us to do that then it is for crabs to.

We tried walking down the hallway sideways...

it was taking a very long time to get anywhere!

Later we made paper plate crabs. To make our crabs, we first painted both sides of a paper plate. We also painted the eyes, claws, and legs from the FREE Scholastic paper plate crab template (see below).

Then we folded the plate in half and glued the black inside the mouth, and attached the eyes, limbs, and claws.

Now, when you do this craft, make sure to give him eight legs! At the last minute, I was trying to remember if they had eight legs plus the claws, or if eight included the claws. After seeing different answers online, we just did six legs. But it turns out after a little bit more digging, that it's actually eight legs PLUS the claws! So ours have two more magical legs you just can't see because they're hiding behind its body. (wink)

Learned something new, didn't you?!

See inside his mouth?

We wrote about the things that make us feel crabby and sketched them out.

They turned out terrific!

They are hanging in our hallway...

Don't get pinched as you walk by!

Here is the paper plate crab template from Scholastic!

Continuing our exploration of what exactly is in the ocean...

I made some ocean posters to hang around the room. Then I gave them a writing activity that goes along with it. You may know it to be called a Write-the-Room. The students walked around and wrote the poster words that they found onto this activity sheet.

When they ere done, I used the posters as part of our ocean classroom decorations...as well as a way for them to go back and reference how to read and spell the various ocean creature words.

Click HERE to get these Ocean Posters with the Writing Activity.

I also made a Singular and Plurals matching game for the kids to play. They had a TON of fun with this. Plus, it helped them master:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1c Form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/.

Click HERE to get the Ocean Friends Singular and Plurals Matching Game!

At the coloring table during recess, students got to color these awesome ocean color-by-number pictures I found!

I also brought in this snazzy, Singin' Sea Creatures 3D puzzle that I had gotten my own kids a few years ago. You can find it on Amazon.

Put on the glasses and...whoooa! It's 3D!

Well, time to wrap it up for now. I've got to start preparing next weeks ocean activities. We will be focusing on the beach too next week...

...which means SAND will be involved!

I'l leave you with the phrase from Pout Pout Fish that my kids have been singing every day, ever since we read it. Maybe it'll get stuck in your head too!