Introduction
Students are given a few moments to look around the Aquarium to observe the diversity of marine life and habitats.What Is a Fish?
A lively discussion using a fish puppet to discuss what makes a fish different from other animals that live on land and in the water. Gills, scales, fins, movement eyes, coloration, and fish foods are touched upon.Fish Hunt
Students are given visual clue cards with patterns, shapes, colors and images. Their job is to search for a fish in the Aquarium that somehow matches their clue card. This activity encourages careful observation, and offers an opportunity for active, goal-oriented exploration. It also challenges students to differentiate between fish and other aquatic animals.Fish Hunt Discussion
The whole group gathers together to share what they have found, and a few interesting stories about fish adaptations.Touch Tank
Students form small groups to examine and handle invertebrate tide pool animals. They will learn proper handling techniques while observing sea stars, urchins, horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs and learn about their fascinating adaptations.
Key
Terms Used During the Program
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Design-a-Fish
Encourage students to draw a picture or color a coloring page that shows a fish that blends in with its surroundings. A variety of simple coloring pages with aquatic themes are available at the Preschool Coloring Book. Or ask each student to color one fish without coloring the background. Then students exchange fish and are challenged to create a background with colors that their fish will blend with. Emphasize same and different concepts as they relate to blending in or camouflage.
Water Color Rainbow Fish
Read the book Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister aloud to the class. Have students use rainbow colors to paint a whole sheet of paper. Students can draw a large fish shape on their paper and cut them out. Glue one scale made from aluminum foil onto the cutout.
Ten Little Fishes Finger Rhyme
Children hold up ten fingers and then make swimming motions with their hands. For the rest of the lines, wiggle each finger in turn.Ten little fishes were swimming in a school,
This one said, "Let's swim where it is cool."
This one said, "It's a very warm day."
This one said, "Come on, let's play."
This one said, "I'm as hungry as can be."
This one said, "There's a worm for me."
This one said, "Wait, we'd better look."
This one said, "Yes, it's on a hook."
This one said, "Can't we get it anyway?"
This one said, "Perhaps we may."
This one, so very brave, grabbed a bite and swam away.Assessment: Swim Like a Fish!
This fun activity will challenge students to recall what they observed at the Museum Aquarium. Gather outside or in a place where you have the space to spread out into one big circle. After modeling an example or two, ask students to take turns making up a movement or a sound/movement based on one of the animals they saw in the Aquarium. After each student says the name of their animal and shows their movement, the rest of the group joins in.Movement examples include: slithering like a snake, opening and closing mouth like a fish, crawling like a turtle, crawling like a crab, pinching like a lobster, walking like a sea star, swimming using your fins like a clownfish, swimming like an eel by wriggling, hopping like a frog, climbing like a chameleon, sticking out your tongue like a snake, etc.
Use the
Berkshire
Athenaeum’s on-line catalogue to search for these print
resources in Central/Western Massachusetts.
Print Materials For Students
Earle, Sylvia A. Hello Fish! Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, c. 1999. An underwater explorer takes a tour of the ocean and introduces such fish as the damselfish, stargazer, and brown goby.
Giles, Andraea. Commotion in the Ocean. Waukesha, WI : Little Tiger Press,1998. A collection of poems about the many creatures living beneath the sea, including the crab, dolphin, and angel fish.
Henley, Claire. In the Ocean. New York: Hyperion Books, 1992. A series of simple, colorful images and captions focusing on living creatures and human beings in and around the sea.
Lionni, Leo. Fish is Fish. Dragonfly Books, 1974. An excellent story book for young children that guides the reader through the differences and similarities among fish and frogs.
Lionni, Leo. Swimmy. (Reissue Edition) Dragonfly Books, 1992. Under Swimmy's leadership, many small fish work together to become a school. The artistic techniques used are ones young students will readily relate to: sponge painting and simple printing.
Pfister, Marcus. The Rainbow Fish. New York: North-South Books, 1996. The most beautiful fish in the entire ocean discovers the real value of friendship and inner beauty.
Print Materials For Educators
Arthur, Alex. Shell. (A Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Book). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. Many beautiful images of different kinds of shells, and very accessible but specific text about the animals who create them and dwell in them. A great resource for information about aquatic invertebrates.
Nadeau, Isaac. Food Chains in a Tide Pool Habitat. New York, N.Y.: PowerKids Press, 2002. Shows the relationships among producers, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, and decomposers. Each page of text faces a full page of photographs that include some of the flora and fauna mentioned.
Parker, Steve. Fish. (A Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Book). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. An easy-to-understand book filled with photos, illustrations, and explanations of how fish function.
Powell, David. A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer. California: UC Press, 2002. Beginning with the pioneering "do-it-yourself" days of scuba diving in the late 1940s, Powell guides us through his career at several of the best aquariums.
Web Materials for Students
Enchanted Learning
This is a fun, educational site for audiences as young as preschool. Users will find science, language arts, geography, and craft pages, among others. Rated A+ by Education-World.com.
Web Materials for Educators
International Year of the Ocean Homepage
Games, puzzles, trivia, mazes and more. These resources were created by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Alaska Fisheries Science Center for the NMFS 125th Anniversary Activity Book Series.New England Aquarium
Link to the New England Aquarium, located in Boston MA. This site offers activities and a guide to the Aquarium itself.
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