Ocean Week Lesson Plans (AKA Shark Week)
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Do you love ocean week as much as me? Here is a little ocean week AKA Shark WEEK flashback.
This might be my favorite theme to teach all YEAR! I can’t get enough! Perhaps it is because I lived the majority of my life in San Diego or I first considered a career as a marine biologist or maybe because ocean week is a signal that the end of the year is right around the corner. Regardless, I seriously love talking about the ocean and the creatures that live in it.
This might be my favorite theme to teach all YEAR! I can’t get enough! Perhaps it is because I lived the majority of my life in San Diego or I first considered a career as a marine biologist or maybe because ocean week is a signal that the end of the year is right around the corner. Regardless, I seriously love talking about the ocean and the creatures that live in it.
Ocean Week Poetry
We started the week off with our new poem. I can’t. stop. singing. it. and neither can my students.
You can find the poem HERE.
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Ocean Themed Centers
I switched up a BUNCH of stations yesterday and today!
To find the source of the station, just click on the picture.
My class never grow tired of this game… like EVER!
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And a little subtraction with coloring is always a hit. You can find these blank cubes HERE.
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Counting on from a given number!
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Comparing numerals and objects. You can find these blank spinners HERE.
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Composing and Decomposing 10!
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Counting items, writing numerals to match and writing the number words.
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Subtraction!
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And data collection and graphing!
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I was asked if we give spelling tests… no, we don’t. However, I do expect my students to spell our word wall words correctly and this activity is fun way to practice it.
Partner A reads the word to Partner B.
Partner B writes the word as best they can. Then they check to see if they were right and write the word an additional time. Then they get to roll and move their piece. They love this activity… shhhh… don’t tell them they are learning at the same time!
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Since we have practiced it already, I am moving this into our dessert tubs. Since I don’t want a paper product, I just slid the response page into a dry erase sleeve. I put all of the pieces that were needed in the Crystal Light container (game cards, dry erase markers, game pieces, die).
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Here is a close up of the bugs version. This grasshopper makes me laugh!
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Here it is in the dessert tub. You can read more about dessert tubs HERE.
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Handwriting and sentence practice
I have also been asked about handwriting. These are the activities that really help me reinforce handwriting. Students are not composing (like in writer’s workshop) so asking them to focus on letter formation during this activity feels appropriate. As you can see, this writing sample is not perfect. HOWEVER… when I compare it to earlier samples, you’ve come a long way baby!
His path of motion is spot-on AND I love his whale! Small nudges… small nudges make a HUGE difference over time.
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I have been asking my students to “tell more” in their writing. Before students can write more, they need to me able to tell more… so we practiced telling (not writing) more today with this awesome shared text. This is a simple informational text about whales. Each page has a different type of whale on it with 2 sentences (incidentally, these two sentences take up 2 lines of text… stay with me).
After we read the entire book, we looked for punctuation. I could have asked, “How many sentences are on this page?” and I would have gotten a group answer of 2. But does that mean they know there are two sentences? Instead, I asked, “How do you know how many sentences are on this page?” This requires understanding and an ability to articulate their thinking. Asking the right questions will help identify and clarify misconceptions. I have seen 2nd graders, when reminded to add punctuation, add a period to the end of each LINE of text vs the end of the sentence.
We then read the text again and this time I asked, “What else could you say about an orca?” and “What else could you say about a narwhal.” We had an amazing conversation.
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Learning about Ocean Animals
We got to preview Deanna Jump’s new Ocean Animals unit… It! Was! Perfect!
Here is my techie tidbit. I use doceri to link my iPad to my computer. My Promethean Board is a bust. After only aabout a year of solid interactive awesomeness, my pens started to fail. The fix? Open and close the program, jiggle wires, reboot system… with 5-6-year-old children waiting… um… NIGHTMARE! No Thank you! So for a time, my Promethean Board was just a BIG BEAUTIFUL screen with speakers.
I sincerely love it. I can get out from behind my computer and interact with students while still controlling my computer screen. We all know sitting at your computer = behavior rodeo at this time of year. I can also use the “record” button to make a video!NOTE: My district purchased doceri for each teacher to use. This is not an official review or sponsored request… I just like it! I think it is pretty inexpensive to purchase (like $30).
When I want interactivity, I can select the pens, highlighter… lots of goodies! 
My class was glued to the screen.
We checked our comprehension by answering some true and false questions also from her Ocean Animals unit. Then we turned the false statements into true ones.
Informational Writing
Using the True/False paper as a support, we started writing!
Add a craft for extra engagement!
Oh dear… something went terribly wrong here, but we fixed it!
We repeated the same process with whales. I had to get a quick picture of this one.
Oh my! It makes me smile! THAT FACE!
A little more informational writing.
Close Reading and Figurative Language
This week we are also reading Hello Ocean in our Guiding Readers unit. Each day we reread the book and added words to our vocabulary chart. They LOVED this! But one question remained…What did the author mean by “the five of me?” I let the question hang there… and hang there. Partners got knee-to-knee to discuss and speculate.
Meanwhile, we added to our response booklet.
As the week concluded, we still had that one question left, what did the author mean? My students would come up to at recess and wonder, What was she talking about? What did she mean? After our chart was complete and after hearing a bazillion theories, it was becoming clear to me that they might need a little more help, so I gave them a little nudge.We learned a LOT about figurative language this week, but I have to remember we are still in the literal (and wonderful) world that is kindergarten!
Crafts and Snacks
This looks like a fun and fast little craft we could do!
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| Source: Toddler Approved |
AND these look great (except I am 99% sure mine would look like a train wreck)
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| Source: Family Go |
Click on the image to download my lesson plans with resource hyperlinks.
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Deedee Wills
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
Hi, I'm DeedeE.
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
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5 Responses
Your blog is beautiful!!! I love it!
xo,
Vicky
Thank you SO MUCH! I am super excited!
I see all of your wonderful centers and the students working. I’m wondering how you keep them accountable for the work they do at their centers? I have thirty students and NO help. I’ve tried them in the past but the students just end up playing around and not really doing the work.
Hi there!
If you go to the “My Classroom” tab on my blog, you will find a link (with pictures) that should help you. 30 students at one time without help is a LOT. I had 20-24 without help and it felt a bit overwhelming this just that many little bodies.
Loved this ideas, will definitely try with my 5 year-old!! Thanks for sharing!!