Sea Life
Chelsey
Abby
Kristen
Lindsey
Melissa
Justification
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Fascinating for all ages
Opens eyes to the immense world
Sea life is often overlooked.
Kids of all ages are interested in “Finding
Nemo” at the present time.
• Students in Illinois are not exposed to the
environment under the sea.
Abby’s Lesson
• Read story A Fishy Story Students will brainstorm what
they might want to write a short story about regarding
sea life.
• Show example of “Fin Tales” activity to students.
• Allow students to brainstorm story ideas while teacher
writes them on the chalkboard. Have students practice
writing out their sentences to make a story on sea life lined
paper.
• Have students re-copy sentences on sentence slips and put
their fish together.
• Allow students to color their fish while others are
finishing up.
Lindsey’s Lesson
 Explain to the students that they are to complete an
interactive presentation with a partner.
 Divide students into pairs and hand out the All About
Fish worksheet. Model how to access the PowerPoint
presentation and look for the information.
 Have pairs complete the interactive presentation and
worksheet.
 Review what they learned about fish.
• As a class, complete a Venn diagram comparing and
contrasting humans and fish.
Kristen’s Lesson
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Read students Leo Lionni’s book entitled, Swimming.
Have students close their eyes and imaging an underwater scene.
Tell them to provide some words from their image.
Put words on the chalkboard, overhead, etc. for the entire class to see.
Allow students to color their fish while others are finishing up.
After going through the work bank the children created, tell the students that they are to
incorporate five words or more into an under the sea scene that they will create.
Have numerous different colors of construction paper at the front of the class. Tell the
students that they are to take as many colors as they want to make their sea scene.
Once the children retrieve their paper, explain to them that they are to tear off small
pieces of the colored construction paper and paste them all together to make a larger
image.
After the children are done making their under the sea scene with paper scraps, ask them
to write a paragraph about the scene that they created. They have to incorporate all of
the words they chose in their scene into their paragraph.
Ask the class to share both pieces of work.
Chelsey’s Lesson
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Students will create have created a treasure box at the beginning of the year.
A treasure theme will be used in the room throughout the year.
Students will read a chapter of Treasure Island every two days.
Students will discuss, in class, what they have read.
Every other day a small reenactment of the chapter will be performed.
Students will discuss possible themes.
There will be daily outlines that the class does as a whole.
Students will have to look up new words because they will be quizzed on
vocabulary words that are in the text.
 When the unit is over, there will be a treasure Hunt
 There will be clues leading to the boxes buried at the
beginning of the year.
Melissa’s Lesson
 Have students read textbook chapter.
 Then assign definitions and discuss what each word means as a
class.
 Before a quiz on these definitions, introduce a fun activity to
help students with their definitions.
 Pass out fish markers with the instructions that they are not
allowed to eat anything until the activity is finished.
 Then pass out worksheets.
 Mix up definitions and read aloud to the class until someone has
5 definitions in a row. Play until time runs out for this activity.
 Review definitions while students are snacking on their fish.
Our Group Lesson
 Read students The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. Upon finishing the
 book, tell the students that they are going to write their own story about
 their favorite sea animal. Use an overhead in front of the entire class that has
every letter in the alphabet in its own box.
 Ask the class to generate words (2-5) that begin with each of the letters and write
them in the coordinating boxes.
 Leave the word chart up on the overhead and hand out the story worksheet.
Explain to the students that they have to come up with their own scary, funny,
silly, etc. sea creature story. One complete sentence should be written after each
letter. The sentences cannot be continued down to the next line. Every sentence
starts with a word that coordinates with the letter at the beginning of the line.
 Give students ample time to complete his/her story and allow them to share with
the class if they chose to.
 Do you have a larger word bank to pull starter words from after this assignment?
Why was writing this story hard?
Books from Genres
• (Contemporary Realistic
Fiction)
Amos, William H. Exploring the
Seashore. National Geographic
Society.Two children are
captured on camera by the
National Geographic team as
they explore the sea life at the
shore of the water. The children
encounter many different types
of sea life as they peruse the
coastline. Bird, crabs, sea
urchins and many more sea
creatures are examined.
• (Modern Fantasy)
Applegate, K. A. (1996).
The Message: Animorphs.
NewYork: Scholastic. A girl
with the magical ability to
morph into a dolphin gets
into trouble during an
adventure. She is helped by
her magical friends to help
save an Andalite from the
Yeerks. Both creatures are
extraterrestrial and they
have brought their civil war
to planet Earth.
Books from Genres Cont.
• (Traditional Fantasy)
Baker, Margaret and Mary (1951).
The Golden Books Treasury of
Elves and Fairies: The Lost
Merbaby. New York, New York:
Golden Books Publishing
Company, Inc. Three Mermaids
search for their missing
merbaby, who has been rescued
by a fisherman and his wife.
They enlist the help of a myriad
of sea creatures and learn that
family is more important than
keeping a house clean and tidy.
• (Poetry/Plays)
Base, Graeme (1992). The Sign
of the Seahorse: A Tale of
Greed and High Adventure in
Two Acts. New York, New
York: Abrams.The
inhabitants of a coral reef are
threatened when a shady real
estate deal started by the
greedy Grouper floods their
area with poisonous waste.
Books from Genres Cont.
• Picture Book
Canizares, Susan, and Mary
Reid. (1998). Coral Reef.
New York: Scholastic. A
picture book with
photographs that have simple
text. The book explores life
on a coral reef, emphasizing
the beautiful colors and
patterns found there. Pictures
are wonderful and the book
does an excellent job of
teaching colors through
vibrant pictures.
• Informational
Morris, Rick. (1983). Mysteries
and Marvels of Ocean Life. New
York: Scholastic. There are
many mysteries of ocean life
still to be explained and species
new to science are being found
every year. In this book a reader
will learn all about the unusual,
the extraordinary and the
unexplained fascination of the
world with oceans. This
informational book is packed
with fun facts!
Books from Genres Cont.
• Biography
McGovern, Ann (1998).
Adventures of the Shark
Lady: Eugenie Clark
Around the World. New
York: Scholastic. This is
the life story of Eugenie
Clark, a marine
biologist. It chronicles
the life and adventure of
this very daring and
caring woman.
• (Historical Fiction)
Stevenson, Robert Louis. (1883).
Treasure Island. New York:
Scholastic. The story is set in the
day of the infamous pirate Long
John Silver. Jim Hawkins
encounters Billy Bones and his
adventures begin. The death of Billy
Bones, brings Jim into contact with
many others. After discovering a
treasure map among the belongings
of Billy Bones, they sail for this
island where it has been discovered
that the notorious Captain Flint
buried his treasure. Long John
Silver, in an attempt to get the
treasure, comes on board their ship.
Books from Genres Cont.
• Multicultural
Tooze, Ruth. (1962). Silver from the Sea.
New York: Viking Press. This is the story
of a Vietnamese boy. It is his first day to go
to the silver waters to fish. This is a story of
family and determination. The boy learns
much from his family and has a successful
first day of fishing in the silver waters for
silver fish.
TIME
FOR FUN!