Book of the Day Activities: Fishy Tales

Books of the Week for August 2-8

This week's books are all about the FISH. What are your favorite fish books? Please add them below!

Ten Little Fish by Audrey and Bruce Wood

• Make a file folder counting game (see link below).
• Make fish "aquarium" for snack using blue jello and gummy fish.
• Make a class mural using a large sheet of bulletin board paper and blue/white paint. Add fish that the children have made/cut out of construction paper.
  
  

Hello Fish: Visiting the Coral Reef, A National Geographic Book by Sylvia Earle

• View National Geographic Website below to learn about fish facts.
• Learn about the parts of a fish. Put a large diagram on the bulletin board or Smartboard for students to see.
• Learn other words that begin with the letter F. Make a fishing game by tying a magnet on the end of a dowel. Gather about 10-15 picture cards where at least half of them depict "F" words like fish, frog, flag, etc. Place magnets on the back of each picture. Put the pictures in a small inflatable pool and let the children fish out each card, one at a time. When they get their card, they have to say if the picture begins with an F or not. You can sort the pictures on a magnetic board.

Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

Fish Eyes: A Book You Can Count On by Lois Ehlert

• Cut out various fish shapes from construction paper. Give students lots of collage materials and allow them to choose a fish to decorate. Some collage materials might be: beads, buttons, sequins, tissue paper, yarn, confetti, party streamers, stickers, etc...
• Read other books by Lois Ehlert and study how she creates her illustrations.
• Do some fish math - find or make some fish counters and do some simple math word problems with a small group of children at a time.

Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni

• Create water color drawings.
• Do a painting with tissue paper: give children a white sheet of water color paper and colored tissue squares. Allow the child to dip the tissue paper in a shallow bowl of water (or "paint" water on the paper with a small paint brush; you can also use watered down glue instead of water). Place the colored tissue paper on the white construction paper, rub for a few seconds and then remove the tissue paper. You will be left with the color of the tissue paper! The result will be much like a water color painting but you will have some defined shapes and some deeper colors.
• Learn about Leo Lionni.
  
  

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

• Classic Seuss! Watch the video of this story. It is available online.
• This is a good book to use introduce number words.
• This is also a fun introduction to rhyming words.
  
  

Fish: A DK Eyewitness Book by Steve Parker

• Visit an aquarium, or see if your local aquarium has an outreach program, so the children can learn about fish.
• Give children pictures of various animals (it is best to use real pictures and not outlines/patterns) and have them sort them into two categories: fish or not a fish.
• Set up a classroom aquarium. Make this a journal activity by having the students document the steps the class had to take to create the aquarium.
  

Some Fishy Links

EPA Fish Site for Kids

Florida Museum of National History: Ichthyology Site

Fish FAQs - Good background information for adults

Fish File Folder Games

DLTK's Fish Site - Printables, Crafts, Coloring Pages

Fish Songs from Everything Preschool

National Geographic for Kids - Creature Features Fish Page

Preschool Ocean Songs