Under the Sea...continued

The big day came and went in a jiffy! It's ironical that all the hard work, effort, toil, planning, creating and execution doesn't really seem a big deal when the event gets over. Its leaves an empty feeling, not of dissatisfaction but something which i can't really explain. Probably because the event itself doesn't last too long but the process really does! But i don't carry any regrets for putting in the long hours because the entire journey of learning turned out to be full of excitement for the little ones. And the end result was really worth the while. 

I am sharing few pictures of activities that my kiddos did while learning about sea animals. I tried to integrate all aspects of learning and do activities which kids could connect with and see the purpose behind it.

I integrated literacy into the unit and we did interactive writing for all the animals that we learnt about.

 We made beach books in which children wrote what they would like to do on the beach.

We drew the picture of a sea animal that we would love to be.

 Since my children have started reading CVC words, they wrote words of their choice on submarines. The idea came from Deanna Jump.

 We read a lot of poems related to sea and made illustrations for our poetry journals.

The book "How deep is the sea?" was a wonderful read and the kids drew their favorite page from the story.

The dramatic play area was the most exciting place for kids.There was a submarine, a pirate's hat, sarongs, scuba diver equipment, shells, sand and much more for the kids to enjoy.

We played a lot of number and visual discrimination games at the 'theme' center.

Math was never so much fun! Graphs, number correspondence and pre-addition activities 

got integrated into the theme.

Inside the crab, i stuck a math fact and children tried solving it.

 We made the suckers of the Octopus according to the number on its arm.

Ocean Graph !

The kids did lots of craft activities after learning facts about the animals.

Sponge painted Sea Horse and glittery Starfish!.

 Paper Bag Fish!

 Beware of the Sharks! The template came from Deanna Jump.

And last but not the least i gave the kiddos some fine motor practice. They cut the tentacles of the Jelly Fish and sang the three Jelly Fish song. I found this cute idea HERE.

 I made a little fish gift for my sweet cupcakes. The pack had 'kisses' inside it. The template can be found HERE

Hope you enjoyed reading about these activities as much as i enjoyed doing them.

Under the Sea

The cool misty mornings that October brings with it always make me happy as it suggests the onset of winters. And if you live in the part of India that i do, you would understand the importance of winters and good weather.  I also look forward to the month of October  because its full of festivities and holidays. But the best part of October is that i get to teach my favorite unit of sea animals. Did i say that i love the sea and everything that goes along with it ?

No wonder my excitement level in school at this time is at its peak. It rubs off completely on my kids and i can sense enthusiasm and pure joy on their part to learn.

This year our annual event of exhibiting students work also falls in the month of October. Even though i am all charged up to do this unit , i can literally feel myself in the deep waters with all the work that i have taken upon me. But no complaints, I am thoroughly enjoying the process and i know the end product is going to be extremely gratifying.

So without further ado, i will share pictures and activities that my kids have been doing.

A lot of ideas have come from Deanna Jump's Ocean unit and of course everyone's favorite- Pinterest.

I zeroed down on pirates for the class door. The kids made pirate faces by assembling the cutouts and used white paint to make polka dots on the bandannas.

We made a schema of what we know about the ocean. We will add the new learning as we go along.

For the bulletin board, we made Orcas. We read a non fictional book about Killer Whales and did interactive writing on the big cutout of the Orca. Children had a blast making the Orca craft.

We studied about the Great White Shark. and made comparisons with the whale.

We read the book 'Sharks' and wrote facts.

We did shared reading of the poem, "Smiley Sharks" and found sight words . Children drew their own version of the Great White Shark.

We also did directed art and made sharks. The template of the shark came from Deanna's Ocean unit.

I will be posting more fun stuff related to this unit. So do come back for more.