All about Sharks!

Little Script Theater! The children enjoyed listening to a script about sharks, and acting out different parts of the story. Here you see some of the children swimming on their backs like a beluga whale. 

Shark Snack! We looked in the mirror and counted our teeth. We discovered that we did not have as many teeth as a shark. Sharks can have hundreds of teeth in many rows,  if one falls out, they have a new tooth to take its place.

I forgot to print out the shark mouth as suggested, so we used a bowl instead. Instead of giving each child a bowl with 20 snacks, we filled a bowl with 20 honey roasted peanuts. Then, we took turns rolling the die, counting how many, and taking the exact amount from our stash of snacks. All of the children were engaged using their fine motor skills, and counting aloud.

Here you see the children gathering toys that can fit inside their plastic sacs. This gave them an idea of what a bay shark sack is like. The baby shark sacs are soft, and are filled with nutrients for the babies. It was neat as an educator to see my toddlers trying to see if a large toy would fit inside the sac. I assisted them to find the right size toys for their bags.

 We learned that mother sharks can have babies three different ways. They can lay eggs just like birds do, hatch eggs inside of their bodies, or grow live pups without the egg. 

We played a game after the kids filled their sacks. I gave them two-step directions to follow with their sac in hand. Here you see M crawling under the table. I think all of the children did well using their listening comprehension skills for this exercise.

There is always time to enjoy some tunes with a little dancing!

M is reciting a rhyme about baby sharks! 

K is having fun with her shark fin! All of the children had fun pretending they were sharks swimming in the ocean.

Shark fin fun! Here we are feeling what a shark skin feels like by rubbing our finger against a nail file. We had a great time discussing how the texture of a shark appeared smooth, but it really is not. A sharks skin feels rough and scratchy.

Here you see the children applying glue to their shark fins! As you can see, I also allow my toddlers to apply their own glue using a glue stick. It really helps them to build their fine motor skills, and learn to control their small movements. Afterwards, we work together and apply Elmer's glue for the sand.

C is so happy that his shark fin is complete!

We learned that most sharks like to swim on their own to hunt for food, but they prefer to swim in schools when they mate or migrate. This brought up a discussion on birds migrating south for the winter. They remembered learning about that in our weather Mother Goose Time kit.

The children are building schools of fish. L made a pattern using her blocks.

The kids enjoyed pretending to be a school of sharks hunting for food.