Share your ideas too.  E-mail me at stormie@preschoolbystormie.com
 
SUN & WATER FUN; SEA & FISH; SUMMER FLOWERS

~From Stormie:
Although I'm posting ideas below as often as I can, my very favorite activities for all the above themes have been reserved for my "SUMMER THINGS" booklet.  In the "Teaching Aids" section, I also offer "Winter/Summer Sorting Cards."  (See "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers.")  

Squeezing Water Fun: Use 2 small bowls, one empty, one full of water.  A child soaks a sponge in the water, then squeezes it out over the empty bowl till that bowl has all the water in it.  (A super small muscle exercise!)

Hook A Fish: This is a great eye-hand coordination activity: Gather 6 styrofoam trays then cut 6 fish shapes from them.  Punch a hole through each fish.  Invert a shoe box and cut two rows of 3 slits into it (the slits must be smaller than the fish in order for the fish to sit in them properly).  Tie a hook to one end of a piece of string and attach the string to a short dowel rod or stick.  To "go fishing," children try to hook a fish.

Storage Tip: Most of us have some kind of magnetic fishing poles (magnet on end of string attached to a short dowel).  Well, have you ever been frustrated when storing them because they get all tangled up?  Well, here's a way to solve the problem: Simply slip each string into a fat straw -- provided the magnet is small enough.     

Under the Sea: (Creativity Within the Limits of a Theme): After discussing "the sea," provide each child with a piece of tracing paper, markers, and collage materials.  Tell them "we are pretending the tracing paper is the water."  Instruct them to make an "under the sea" picture any way they wish using the provided materials.  Observe and encourage as they work.  You might ask, "What would you find under the sea?"  Have the children tell you about their completed pictures.  Print their exact words on their papers.

Stormie's Games: By the way, I offer a summer-related game called "Sunny Face Lotto" in the "Teaching Aids" section of "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers."

THE SEA
by Jane Karyuka, from Queensland, Australia
 
Dear Stormie, Our school year (around the 1st of February) begins in summer and our school is in a seaside suburb in tropical north Queensland.  The majority of the children spend lots of time at the beach, and as we have a large research/commercial Aquarium as well as access to coral reefs I often start the year with a sea creature theme.  Activities include:
*Learning Centers with posters, displays of shells, coral, sponges, bones (seahorse, sea dragon, turtle, fish, sea urchin and sea stars), and the children's own discoveries found on the beach (often introduced in a show-and-tell format).
*Art: We have constructed our own aquariums with collage materials tranformed into sea creatures.
*Literature: There are many exceptional books, both fiction and non fiction (and the difference is always stressed), with sea creature themes, but I always ask the children to do a drawing about a sea creature, then we write a story to go with it and place it in book form with a title page, etc.
*Music and Movement: I like to make up stories about the creatures we have talked about as the children act them out (eg: A baby turtle hatches out of its egg casing and pushes its way up through the hot dry sand finally breaking out to the air).  Usually the children take over the story, adding bits and pieces.
*Dramatic Play: There's pirate and treasure play outside where the children draw maps for each other.  They make fishing boats and submarines in the Block Area, go camping and fishing in the Home Area, and many spontaneous developments take place depending on the children's interest, imagination and cooperation.
*Discussions at group time about the items displayed:
1. Shells are the hard coverings of the creature that lived inside.  The creature made the shells just as we make our bones; shells start very small and the creature or mollusc makes the shell bigger as they grow and this can be seen by the ridge lines on the shell; shells that have two sides that are joined by a muscle are called bivalves and others are univalves; the shell is to protect the mollusc from predators; molluscs take oxygen (air) from the sea and most will die if they are out of the water for long.  Sharks have a continual growth of teeth so if one breaks it is immediately replaced.  (Similar information is given about how coral is formed).
2. Male seahorses have pouches and look after the young
3. Octopuses and some sharks lay eggs
4. Hermit crabs have to find a new shell once they out grow the one they occupy 
    The commercial/research Aquarium also has an educational facility.  They visit and bring live baby sharks, sea stars, and crabs that the children can watch and touch, and they do a puppet show on dangers for a young turtle.  We may or may not go on an excursion (field trip) to the Aquarium but usually parents will respond to the children's interest and take them anyway.  We can also borrow displays from the museum.  One of the major indigenous groups that live in the City have their roots in Island living (Torres Strait Islanders) and are very close to the sea.  Their stories, folklore, and cultural items rely a great deal on the sea so often a display is included.
    Usually as closure, I purchase (or have donated), items from seafood shops so the children can see and handle dead crabs fish, mussels, prawns, oysters, squid and octopus.  It is very interesting to listen to the language that results from this.  It is always interesting to me how children learn more about themselves and the way they live in the world by studying the way another creature lives.  They will often repeat something they have learned and qualify it with something about themselves while talking to each other: "Fish have gills but we don't."  "We have lungs."  And so on.

From Barbara B. who works with Life Skills children in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania
Deep Sea Bottles: In bottles (16.9 oz size), we place a mixture of water and oil then add toy fish, whales, seashells, "glow in the dark" worms (to represent eels), etc. -- animals that live in the deeper waters of the ocean (purchased at Wal-Mart and Dollar stores).  Add food coloring to make it more appealing.  The bottles are then taped closed before the children take them home.  (I filled the bottles with a little over half water and the rest with oil but I didn't fill them to the extreme top so as to have room for the "sea creatures" to move about.)

Three great art ideas from Leslie H:
1. Individual Sea Aquariums: Children are given two paper plates (one has a hole cut out of the center with blue cellophane taped over it to look like water).  Children glue their collage items (fish crackers, gummy frogs, plastic seahorses, etc) onto the other paper plate.  We then attach the plate with the blue cellophane on it to the collaged plate.
2. Children can do a mural of the sea as a group project.
3. Paint large seahorse shapes at the easel using watercolors.

Fun facts to share with preschoolers from Beth Bennett in Fairbanks, Alaska:
1. "Blue whales are even bigger than dinosaurs were.  They eat the tiniest creatures because they don't have teeth."
2. "The starfish doesn't have a brain, but he can grow a new arm if somebody eats one of his."
3. "Orcas and other whales nurse their babies right in the water!"

CLASSROOM AQUARIUM

Ideas from a preschool sea life unit by Lisa Shortt in Baltimore, Maryland

*Snack: Aquariums: We made blue colored Jello (with added Gummy Sharks) in small plastic (see through) cups.
*Cooking Project: We prepared fish sticks.
*Creative Art (within the limits of a theme): Classroom Aquarium Mural: We taped a large white piece of paper to the wall at children's eye level.  The children then drew their own fish on the paper, or, in some cases, traced cookie cutter fish, using crayons (we used old broken ones because we wanted them to press hard).  We also asked parents to help out by drawing fish and plant life closer to the top of the paper where the children couldn't reach.  (We ended up with some wild fish!)  Then, one night, after the children left, we painted the entire paper with a light blue paint making it look like everything was underwater.  The children were thrilled the next day, and we even made smaller ones for "take home" projects.
*Language:
1. Conservation: We discussed the importance of conserving water (don't leave it on after brushing your teeth, washing your hands, etc), and we discussed water safety.
2. Show-N-Tell: Children brought in souvenirs from family beach trips.
*Creative Art: Fish: The children created all kinds of fish by decorating seashells (I found at a craft store) with squiggle eyes and pipe cleaners.  (I've also used seashell shaped paper for this when I couldn't find real ones.)
*Gross Motor:
1. Fish Wiggle: This game is like the "statue" or "freeze" game: The children wiggle around on the floor like a fish until the music stops (we used the soundtrack to "Little Mermaid"), then they must be perfectly still, but if they move, they're "out."
2. Lobster Limbo: Children "crab walk" under the limbo stick.
3. Fish-Nastick: Children wear oven mitts (with thumbs) and then run relays (like egg on the spoon, etc).  (The oven mitts turn their hands into a fish with fins.)
*Science: We discussed fish scales and I showed them my shark teeth collection.
*In-House Field Trip: A local fish store owner came in and set up an aquarium and told us how to take care of it.  (This became a great classroom pet.)  He also brought us "current charts" from the bays around us where we live and we talked about "slimy slugs" and "mud suckers" -- the kids loved this!
*Another Field Trip Option: We have gone wading in a nearby stream (lots of parents needed for this though).
*Field Trip T-Shirts: Using fabric paint and potatoes cut in half, we printed "fish" on old shirts to wear on the field trip.

From Judy Nickerson:
Bubble Wrap Fish: I cut a fish shape from bubble wrap (packing protection material) and tape it onto the easel.  The children paint the fish and then press a piece of paper onto it.  When they peel the paper off, the fish shape is stamped onto the paper.  (The bubbles make great looking fish scales!)

From Michele, in New Jersey:
Shoe Box Aquariums: Hi Stormie.  I first tried this idea with a class I had a few years ago and they loved it!  First, I asked the parents to send a shoe box for their child, and I made copies of fish and other sea animals in advance for the children to color and cut out.  The children painted their boxes blue.  I then took my class to the sand pit in the playground of the school where I had hidden small sea shells.  Each child had a little cup.  They dug and explored, looking for sea shells, and they each gathered two sea shells and a little bit of sand.  They put glue on the inside bottom of their boxes and sprinkled the sand, and glued and hung the sea life inside the boxes as well.  I helped them tape blue plastic wrap over the open end of their boxes.  Each child took home their very own no-mess aquarium!  It was great!

From Michele O.:
Hi Stormie, In my classroom, I created an undersea bulletin board by using blue wrapping paper for the water and tan-colored textured shelf liner (rubber-type) for the sandy ocean bottom.  It turned out great, and everyone loved it!

 
Favorite Books:
~From Donna King, in North Carolina:
Does Anyone Know Where A Hermit Crab Goes? Written and Illustrated by Michael Glaser: A hermit crab outgrows his shell and goes looking for a new one.
~From Stormie:
Out of the Ocean, by Debra Frasier: I love the illustrations in this book that show all the things that can be found at the ocean.

SUMMER FLOWERS:
~From Stormie:
Fields of Flowers: During a summer (or spring) unit, put out colored tissue paper in various colors and in various sizes.  In advance (at grouptime), demonstrate how to twist tissue paper pieces around your little finger, your thumb, and your cupped hand.  Dip your twists in glue and stick them on paper for a kind of 3-dimensional look.  Then, leave the children alone to twist and glue their own creative and unique "fields of flowers."  (They love to do the "twist then dip in glue" -- and no messy fingers.)  They can draw or collage their own leaves/stems.

Collage Flower Vases: Have children bring a plastic bottle from home that could serve as a flower vase.  (You might want to send a note home so that children won't bring containers that are too big as the activity can be tiring.)  Allow them to dip tissue paper shapes into a watery glue mixture then collage them onto the bottle.  It would be a good idea to let this be an on-going project that children can work on at their leisure during the month.

~Music related idea from Kelli Stockford in Oregon:
Large Flower: Create paper flower pieces (stem, leaves, petals (all colors), and a flower center).  Print familiar song titles on each.  At Group Time, a child chooses a flower part, you read it, then the group sings that song.  As flower parts are chosen, the child tapes them to the wall or window, building a flower.

~Here's a couple craft ideas from Mary Tolliver, in Lynnwood, Washington:
1. Flower Terrariums: Children glue plastic mini flower bouquets to the inside of a baby food jar lid.  When the glue has dried, screw the lids onto the clear glass jars.  You now have mini terrariums (make nice gifts for mothers/grandmothers)!
2. Flower Vases: Help children tear off pieces of masking tape (about 1/2-1' long) and place them all around the outside of bottles (a Perrier bottle, etc), beginning at the top and working their way all around the bottle.  Instruct them to place each piece of masking tape at the bottom of the last piece to cover the torn edges.  When finished, allow them to paint over the entire bottle with a shoe polish, colored marker, or tempera or water color paints.  Most of the paint settles into the edges of tape on the bottle to create an outline.  It looks really nice.  (This may be quite challening for some -- accept the finished product with praise for the effort, no matter how it turns out.)
*(Just be careful with having children carry glass jars.  You might want to wrap the jars in bubble wrap for carrying home.)
-----------------------

Reminder from Stormie: If you would like to begin collecting ALL my current classroom ideas (each on a 4 x 6" index card), as well as new ones that I create, you can do so by ordering my "Activity Cards."  Click here to check them out.
 

 CONTINUE ON

OR

REVIEW MAY CURRICULUM    CURRICULUMS INDEX    WEBSITE INDEX    HOME
My website address: http://www.preschoolbystormie.com
COPYRIGHT © 1997-2008 STORMIE SEEVERS
I DO NOT GRANT PERMISSION FOR OTHER WEBSITE OWNERS TO COPY THE CONTENT AND DESIGN OF ANY OF MY WEBPAGES.