Weekly Learning Theme: Ocean/Fish

This week's learning theme was one I was really excited about delving into, ocean and fish!  Without even intending to, we were learning about the ocean and fish during Discovery Channel's Shark Week.  So Carter and I learned throughout the day and I watched shows about sharks at night.  Although shark week has definitely gone down hill with lots of fictionalized shows posing as documentaries, I still enjoyed it for the most part.  I had lots of ideas swimming around in my head and found some really awesome ideas when searching online.  I'm going to share the activities we did throughout the week, highlighting what area they fit into: field trip/interactive experience, crafts, songs, make believe, movement, and special snack.  I will also share our book list for themed-related reading throughout the week.  Our week culminated with a family visit to the aquarium.  This week Carter threw me some curve balls.  There were some activities I didn't think he'd be very into that he loved and then a couple things I thought he'd love that he wasn't into at all.

Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks.  The highlighted objectives are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:

1. Know the names of and be able to point out body parts.
2. Know names of objects and be able to point to them when asked.
3. Sort objects based on size or color/Match like objects together, for example match a circle with a circle. 
4. Play make believe.
5. Speak in short phrases and 2-4 word sentences. (He's done some 2 word sentences already!)
6. Follow simple instructions.

Activities/Movement:

• My favorite activity was the fish color sort which we did pretty much daily throughout the week.  I drew and colored 12 fish: 4 blue, 4 red, and 4 yellow.  When we first started I just used 2 colors.  I set the 2 fish a distance apart and then handed him one fish at time.  I'd hand him a blue fish and say, "This is a blue fish, can you put it with the other blue fish?"  He did such a great job and I was so proud of him.  When he was finished sorting he'd let me know by grabbing all the fish in his fists and crumpling them up.

• I created an ocean themed sensory bag for Carter.  I filled a Ziploc bag with blue hair gel, sea shells, and a sand star I brought back from my trip to Thailand.  Last time I made him a sensory bag I lined it with duct tape.  I couldn't find the duct tape and the first thing he did was attempt to open the bag.

•  I pulled out an ocean puzzle I picked up at Target in the dollar spot last year.  Carter loved putting the puzzle together and especially enjoyed flipping the puzzle upside-down and dumping all the pieces out.

• We read the book "Sea Animals" by Jim Pipe and I pulled up a sound clip for each animal.  Carter loved looking at the animals' pictures and hearing the noises they make.  I found sound clips here at seaworld.org and searched for sound clips for the animals not on that site on youtube.

• I saw a really cute idea to make a magnetic fishing game using paper clips on fish and a rod with a string attached to a magnet.  I didn't end up making it so I'm going to file it away for beach week.

Craft:

• There were so many fun crafts related to this topic!  The first one we made was a handprint fish craft.  I folded a piece of paper in half and cut half of a fish bowl to make it easier for me.  Then Carter finger painted the water in the bowl blue.  The next day I added his handprint to look like a fish.  It turned out so cute!

The finished product.

The first thing Carter did was paint his nipple.

 

• We also created a paper plate jelly fish.  Carter finger painted a plate.  I cut it in half when it dried and then glued streamers to the bottom for the tentacles.  Since we just needed half a plate, we created 2 jellyfish.  Carter loved running around with his jelly fish, allowing the streamers to flow behind him and then shaking it up and down.

• We also created a cute fish paper plate craft.  Carter finger painted another plate.  This one I cut a triangle out of for the mouth once it was dry.  Then I glued the triangle to the other side of the plate as the fish's fin.

• After we finished all of the crafts I hung them in his room to turn his room into an aquarium.  It was pretty cool and Carter loved looking up at all of them!

 

• I saw an adorable idea for a bubble wrap starfish craft here.  After all the other paint projects I decided we'd done enough crafts.  It also seemed like it he was a little old for him, so we'll save it for when he gets a bit older.

Special Snack:

• Carter's special snack was goldfish crackers.  He'd never had the crackers before and seemed to enjoy them.  I picked up the baby goldfish crackers which were just so cute!

Make Believe:

• I made shark fins out of cardboard and tied them to us with ribbon.  Carter loved it when I took the fin to fit it on him, but once it was ready he screamed and wanted it off right away.  I thought he would love pretending to be a shark and we even watched videos of sharks before putting the fins on.  He absolutely hated it though.

• I pulled out a blue sheet for us to get under and pretend we were swimming in the ocean.  Carter was not at all interested and I'm not sure if it was because I'd tried the shark fin right before hand.  It would have been fun, but we scrapped it pretty quickly.
• We also played in the pool and in the bathtub.  I shot water out of the tub and pretended it was a whale blowing water out of it's spout.  

Songs:

Baby Beluga Video:

 

Down By the Bay Video:

Field Trip/Interactive Experience:

• We went to the aquarium and were super excited to take Ty with us.  It was our first family aquarium trip since Carter's very first trip way back in February 2013.  Well other than when we went after the aquarium run, but I'm not counting that trip because Carter slept the entire time.  It was so much fun to see animals we had read about in books and to remind Carter of facts we had learned throughout the week.  I had never noticed they had puffer fish at our aquarium, but I did this time because one of Carter's favorite books during the week was a nonfiction book about them.  As always he loved the jellyfish and beavers the most.  Once we got to the shark tunnel he liked walking down the ramp, through the tunnel, and back up the ramp all while stopping to push buttons and check out all the interactive stuff along the walls.   

Books:

There were a few books on our list we weren't able to find at the library, but we still had plenty of books to read!  I picked up some nonfiction books.  I wasn't sure whether he'd like them or not, but he loved them!  He really enjoyed looking at the photos.  We even had a special book Carter's grammy sent him to go along with the theme.  There were so many books and we loved them!

• Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
• One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
• Wave by Suzy Lee
• Baby Beluga by Raffi
• A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
• Fish Bath Book
• Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle
• Swimmy by Leo Lionni
• Ocean Counting by Janet Lawler
• Sea Animals by Jim Pipe
• Fabulous Fish by Susan Stockdale
• Gone Fishing by David McLimans
• Wow! Ocean! by Robert Neubecker
• I'm a Shark by Bob Shea
• A Shark Pup Grows Up by Pam Zollman
• Fish Eyes by Lois Ehlert
• Puffer Fish by Jody Sullivan Rake
• Happy by Mies Van Hout
• Sea Horse the Shyest Fish in the Sea by Chris Butterworth