Slippery Fish

Slippery fish, slippery fish, sliding through the water,Slippery fish, slippery fish, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!Oh, no! It’s been eaten by an …
Octopus, octopus, squiggling in the waterOctopus, octopus, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …
Tuna fish, tuna fish, flashing in the water,Tuna fish, tuna fish, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …
Great white shark, great white shark, lurking in the water,Great white shark, great white shark, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …
Humongous whale, humongous whale, spouting in the water,Humongous whale, humongous whale, Gulp! … Gulp! … Gulp! … BURP! Pardon me!

Watch this teacher for the greatest tips. I would LOVE to have her teach my kids.

Ocean Songs

Baby Beluga
Five Little Fishies Swimming in the Sea (Words in another post)
Ishy Ishy Dance (Words in another post)
My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea
Baby Shark Song (Words in another post)
Slippery Fish Song
Down By the Bay

Ocean Transitions

*Fish Seration (smallest to largest)
*Patterning of different ocean animals
*Counting goldfish in fishbowl
*Ordering shells (# on shells)
*Crab walk to wash hands
*Octopus leg ordering (have head of octopus and #s on legs. Have each child put the next # on)
*Play gossip or telephone with ocean animals
*Ordering 4 beach things (You order them a certain way, mix them up and have them duplicate it the way you had it)
*Sort animals that live in the ocean and animals that don't

Activities for Ocean/Water week

*Play Go Fish (Card Game)

*Play "Let's Go Fishing" (Kids game with plastic fishing poles and fish that open and shut mouths)

*Fish, Fish, Shark (Duck, Duck, Goose)

*Crab Walk Races

*Shark Attack (Play tag and whoever is it is the shark)

*Cut out ocean animals, write gross motor activities on the back and hide them around the room. Have one child at a time find one and do the activity written on the back. For example: swim, skip, walk backwards, crab walk, jumping jacks, hop on one foot, etc.

*Put a beach umbrella in the sand box with buckets, shovels, shells, etc.

*Paint your windows with blue paint and have the kids cut out fish to put "in the ocean"

*Hang blue crepe paper from the ceiling

*Dance with scarves (octopus or jellyfish tenticles) to "Under the Sea"

Ocean Crafts

This picture is sideways. It is a coral tracer that you can either have the children cut out (if they are skilled with scissors) or you can have them pre-cut for the kids. You let them paint with brushes or fingers with orange, red, etc. and then let them sprinkle puffed rice on top of the paint to look like a coral reef. This is a crab that you let the children paint with karo syrup mixed with red dye. It leaves a shiny effect. Have them sprinkle it with sand if they want after they are done painting it.
This lobster can be traced and cut out by the children. Add brad fasteners so that the kids can move the arms.
This is just one of many fish activities you can do. Cut out the triangle for the mouth and use that same triangle for the tail fin. Hole punch the eye to encourange greater hand strength. Then you can color or paint it. We added glitter since we read the Rainbow Fish that day.
*You can also make a "fish bowl" craft by cutting a fish bowl shape out of construction paper, painting it with blue karo syrup, adding small rocks (colored are best) to the bottom of the bowl, then sticking goldfish crackers in the bowl.

*Make sandcastles out of clay and sand mixed together. When they dry the children can take them home.

*Paper bag fish- fill a lunch sack 1/2 full of old newspaper and then tie it with a string. Fan the end of the bag to look like a tail. Add googley eyes to each side and let the children decorate it with markers, crayons, glitter and glue, etc.

*Octopus- Have the children cut eight strips of paper and then # them from 1-8. You could have the top of the octopus already cut out or let them trace and cut it out. Then have them put the legs on the octopus in order 1-8.

*Jellyfish- Have the children trace and cut out a semi-circle for the top of the jellyfish. Use crepe paper for the tenticles. Let them choose how long they want the tenticles and then glue them on to the top. Hang them from the ceiling and the fan or A/C will make them move.

*Sharks- Cut out a large shark head with mouth open and have the children cut out little triangles for the teeth. Have them glue the teeth in the sharks mouth and color the shark.

Ocean/Water Books

Rainbow Fish By Marcus Pfister
Swimmy
Fidety Fish
ABSeas
A House for Hermit Crab By Eric Carle
Guess Who Ocean Friends By Jodie Shepherd
Dolphin's Big Leap! By Kimberly Wienberger
Clumsy Crab By Ruth Galloway
The Big Wide-Mouthed Frog By Ana Martin Larranaga
The Selfish Crocodile by Faustin Charles
Five Green and Speckled Frogs
Ruby in Her Own Time (Ducks) By Jonathan Emmett
The Pout-Pout Fish By Deborah Diesen
Down By the Cool of the Pool (Frog) By Tony Mitton
Commotion in the Ocean By Giles Andreae
Five Little Sharks Swimming in the Sea By Steve Metzger
Colors with Crocodile (Toddler Board Book)

Sharks

Baby shark, doo-doo, doo-doo, (2 times) (thumb and pointer finger acting as shark's mouth)
Mommy shark, doo-doo, doo-doo, (2 times)(thumb and all fingers)
Daddy shark, doo-doo, doo-doo, (2 times)(two hands)
Grandpa gums, doo-doo, doo-doo (two times) (two fists, connected at wrists acting as shark's mouth)
Swimmers swimmin' doo-doo, doo-doo (two times) (swimming movements with arms)
SHARK ATTACK, DOO-DOO, DOO-DOO (2 times) (Yelling!, whole arms acting as shark's mouth)
Swimming back, doo-doo, doo-doo, (2 times) (alternate roll shoulders back, or whole arms as if swimming back)

Fish Beanbags

I made these out of felt. I had ten in all - two of each color for the base. So, two reds... each with a different accent color. Then, I had five of them swimming one direction as a "school" and the other five (one of each color) facing the other direction. These can be used for SO many things.

I taught a week of preschool about fish and the ocean. During circle time, I would toss a fish to a child that had something to say. We talked about schools of fish, and how we are like a school of fish and always stay with our group (good before a field trip). We talked about the different colors. For example, which one is red and orange? Which one is green and red? Before I made them, I planned out how the colors would work so there were no two fish with the same two colors.
We got partners and tossed the fish back and forth, getting further apart as we went. Sometimes I think gross motor skills are overlooked.
We used these with almost every fish song we sang that day:

1. One little, two little, three little fishies, four little, five little, six little fishies, seven little, eight little, nine little fishies, ten little fishies in the sea.

2. One, two, three, four, five... Once I caught a fish alive.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten... Then I let him go again.
Why did you let him go?
Because he bit my finger so.
Which finger did he bite?
This little finger, on the right.

3. Five little fishies swimmin' in the sea,
Splishin' and a splashin'...happy as can be,
Along comes mister shark, quiet as can be (whisper)
And SNAPPED (loudly) that______ (color)fish right out of the sea!

Ishy Ishy Dance

Oh, I went out fishing (cast pretend fishing pole)
On a hot summer day (wipe hand across forehead)
And I leaned on a fence (rest head on fist to side)
And the fence gave way (keeping previous position, bend at knees)
Got my hands in my pockets (slap hands on pockets)
And my pockets in my pants (turn hands around and slap back of hands on pockets)
Watching all the fishies (hand on brow, searching)
Do the Ishy, Ishy Dance (hands palms together overhead, then wiggle toward the floor - do this every time you sing the words Ishy Ishy Dance)
The Ishy Ishy Dance,
The Ishy Ishy Dance,
Watching all the fishies (hand on brow, searching)
Do the Ishy Ishy Dance.


It doesn't look like much, but the kids LOVE it!

5 Green and Speckled Frogs

5 Green and speckled frogs,
Sat on a speckled log,
Eating the most delicious bugs.
Yum, Yum!
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Now there are 4 green speckled frogs
Glub, glub! (Instead of the glub, glub I have heard "on the log")

You can do actions to this song or you can draw a log on a piece of posterboard with a slit in the water that the frogs jump into. You could velcro the frogs onto the laminated posterboard. I made the frogs and log out of pellon and grabbed a blue flannel blanket and used that as my flannel board. The kids came up when I pointed to them and made the frog jump off the log and into the "water".