Stay informed with our email newsletters.
Click here to give feedback on our pages for educators.

Self-guiding in the Galleries
Pre-During-Post Visit Resources
Aquarium

Grades 1-2

Scroll down the page to find items on the menu below or click on a link to jump to an item.

During Your Visit
click here for printable version

Things You Don't Want to Miss
Discussion Questions
Activities
Go to the Aquarium Gallery Page

Before and After Your Visit
click here for printable version

Important Terms and Concepts
Activities
Print and Web Resources

	Touch Tanks As the tide rises and falls along the New England coast, some areas are exposed to the air at low tide and covered with water at high tide. As the tide goes out, pools of water are left behind on sandy beaches or in the cracks and crevices of rocky shores. These are called tide pools. In the Aquarium Touch Tanks you will find invertebrates that have adapted to this fluctuating environment. Sea urchins, mussels, sea stars, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs and periwinkles are some of the marine animals that one would find in tide pools, and they are here for you to touch and observe.
	Lionfish Reef Tank The lionfish is famous for its dramatic fins and venomous spines. These fish must be cared for carefully by our trained Aquarists, who if pricked may develop a skin rash. You can admire and wonder at them safely while they swim behind glass. The lionfish's tank mates include puffer fish and eels.
	Live Coral Reef Tank Coral reefs are warm, clear, ocean habitats that provide home and shelter to a wide variety of colorful marine life. Though coral look more like plants than animals, they are actually animals. However, algae live inside the coral and carry on photosynthesis to produce food that is consumed by the coral. When certain hard coral die they leave behind a limestone skeleton. The Museum's live coral reef tank contains roughly 25 species of coral, in addition to a variety of other invertebrates and fishes. Skeletonized coral can be seen in some of the tanks neighboring the live coral reef tank.
	Amazon Tank The red-bellied piranha is the Amazon's most notorious animal. Piranhas do have sharp teeth and powerful jaws, but the stories of fatal mass attacks are just that…stories. None have ever been confirmed. In fact, observations of Aquarists at places like the Museum indicate that piranhas can be quite shy and timid. When an Aquarium staff member puts his or her hand in the tank, the piranhas swim for cover and hide.

Here are some questions for teachers, chaperones and students to think about while visiting the exhibit.

• If you could swim around in one of the Aquarium tanks, which one would you choose? Which fish would you be? Why? What would it feel like? Smell like? Taste like? Sound like?
• If you could be one of the animals in the Touch Tank, which one would you choose to be? Why? Which one would you least like to be? Why?
• Which Aquarium animal do you think is the most beautiful? Fastest? Most dangerous? Best at hiding? Why do you think so?
• Encourage students to read the Did You Know? clipboards around the Aquarium. Did they find anything surprising?

Aquarium Look and See
While you are in the Aquarium, pick up the "Aquarium Look and See" fish hunt activity that prompts you to locate specific fish using colorful and fun pictures and clues! Click here for complete directions/worksheet.

"I Spy"
Playing "I Spy" is a good way for children to practice their language skills and put their vocabulary into action. Have one child at a time describe an aquarium scene that includes a little bit of detail while the others try to guess what is being described. With each incorrect guess you get to hear another clue added to the phrase "I spy with my little eye (e.g., something yellow…then something yellow swimming in bright light, etc.)."

You may want to familiarize your students with the following terms before your visit to the museum.

• Fish
  an underwater animal that usually has gills, scales and fins.
• Saltwater
  sea or ocean water, which has more salt in it than other bodies of water.
• Fresh water
  water that is typically found in ponds, lakes, streams etc., which has less salt in it than other bodies of water.
• Scales
  the thin transparent (clear) plates that cover most fish.
• Fins
  those parts of a fish that help it move through the water. A tail is one kind of fin.
• Gills
  the parts of a fish that let it breathe in the water. Fish take water in through their mouths, and that water passes by their gills on its way out of the fish.
• Camouflage
  blending in with your surroundings because of the way you look.
• Coral
  coral is an ocean animal that lives in colonies. Some corals leave a hard, stony skeleton when they die.

Water Color Rainbow Fish
Read the book Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister aloud to the class. Have the students use rainbow colors to paint a whole sheet of paper. Students can then draw a large fish shape on their paper and cut it out. Glue one scale made from aluminum foil onto the cutout to mimic the fish in the story.

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 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.

Pond Habitat Model
Students make their own individual pond cross-section models. Cut paper bowls in half and give one half to each student. Students can cover the bottom of the pond with natural, self-drying clay. Then students can create all sorts of pond organisms like fish, turtles, plants and insects out of colored clay, paper, beads, and pipe cleaners. To add the surface of the water, stretch a piece of blue or green plastic wrap over the top and tape it to the sides of the bowl.

Then cover the edge of the plastic with colored clay. Note: Wait until after the plastic has been attached to add plants and animals to the edge of the pond.

Design-a-Fish
Encourage students to draw and color a picture that shows a fish that blends in with its surroundings. 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.

Fish Autobiography
Choose a fish you have learned about. Write a story or a series of "diary entries" as if you were that fish. Describe your life and your habitat. Try to imagine a fish adventure and write it convincingly.

Use the Berkshire Athenaeum’s on-line catalogue to search for these print resources in Central/Western Massachusetts.

Print and Web 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.

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 and Web 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.

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.

New England Aquarium
Link to the New England Aquarium, located in Boston MA. This site offers activities and a guide to the Aquarium itself.

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.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent Federal grant- making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities supports the Berkshire Museum.

< Back to Pre-During-Post Visit Resource Menu