Ocean Activities and Crafts

Today we were able to work on our ocean books during writing...

I supplied stickers, sandpaper, and suggested some drawing to fill the picture portions of the books.  I glued sentence strips to the bottoms of the pages with accompanying ocean words. I made a mental note that it would be a lot easier to write the letters onto the sentence strips before giving the books to the students.  This way the students who could copy the letters, those who need to trace, and those who need hand-over-hand could all write at the same time.  This would have eliminated the time it took to help each student work to their potential.

I also set out some water sensory because our students LOVE water!  I looked for small plastic fish at the store, but didn't have any luck.  I guess winter is not the best time to shop for plastic fish!

We also read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, which was also a crowd pleaser!

Meet The Students

I thought of many ways in which to share who my students are, but with confidentiality looming, photos would be out of the question.  I was helping another teacher create a bulletin board when a thought occurred to me.  The teacher was creating a "Guess Who" board using silhouettes of various characters.  She asked me if I could create silhouettes of the students for the board.  As I finished and had the silhouettes laying out on the table, it hit me that I could upload the paper silhouettes as a means of sharing the students on the blog.

Here are my students:

Music/Sound Inspired Sensory

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

I wanted to share this really neat instrument that our music teacher brought for us yesterday.  Since she knew that we were learning about the ocean, she brought in this wonderful ocean drum.  I included a video so that you could hear what it sounds like.  Our kids LOVED this!

We didn't do a lot of beating on the drum.  We swirled the small metal beads around to make neat sounds!  This is a picture of the drum in our classroom, it is the same drum from the above video!

I brought in smaller sensory sound tubes from recycled Pringles cans.  I used aluminum foil, rice, cereal, and bells inside three different tubes to create unique sounds.  I covered the tubes with sparkle scrapbooking paper.  The paper was an added bonus for sensory because the kids liked the way the texture felt on their hands.  One student was so entertaining, he rubbed the paper then studied his hands carefully.  He could rationalize why the crumbly texture didn't transfer and make his hands messy!  It is so sweet to see the student's expressions when they are really concentrating!



It's Ocean Week Part II

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The first week of our Ocean unit was a success so we decided to extend it another week!


My daughter learned this song many years ago and I thought I would teach it to the kids today:

One, two three, four, five (hold up fingers while counting)
Once I caught a fish alive,
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten (hold up additional fingers)
Then I let it go again.
Why did I let it go?
Because it bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
The little finger on the right (hold up pinky on the right hand)

The teacher had this great activity where the kids could fish from the sensory table.

We created starfish today.  I passed out a colored starfish which was cut and pasted onto another piece of colored paper.  I asked the kids to tell me the colors and/or stated the colors and had them repeat them back to me before we started the activity.  We used Honey Nut Cheerios and glue to add texture to the starfish - which I brought lots of cereal as it is a crowd favorite in this classroom!

We also listened to Disney's, The Little Mermaid, online off and on throughout the day.

Ocean YouTube Picks

A video that would be good as a moving aquarium on a Smartboard.

The students really liked this jellyfish video.

This was an interesting video about crabs.

Winter Bulletin Board

Yet, another Pinterest inspired board.  I found this snowman idea and the student craft on Pinterest.  I thought the puzzle piece snowflakes were so neat!  I had to adjust the craft by making a ring of puzzle pieces that the students could build from.  They glued their pieces together after watching videos which taught them that no two snowflakes are alike.  I also love the winter book, No Two Alike.

On a side note: we also watched this TOTALLY sweet video with the kids.

This is a great video to share as you explain the formation of a snowflake:

Reading Bulletin Board

We had an empty space above a student cubby that I transformed into a reading record of sorts.  I got my inspiration for this board from Pinterest.  I LOVE Pinterest! I have written the titles and authors of books which we have read to the students onto the marshmallows.  They might seem disproportionate in size and easier to read this way.