We are continuing with our ocean-themed writing lessons. But yesterday we didn’t use an ocean book as an intro to our lesson, instead we read these books.

Love them.  

What Are You So Grumpy About? about has the funniest, quirkiest illustrations. It covers all things that might make a youngster grumpy; like no kid cereal left so you have to eat “boring, tasteless grown up cereal”. Or not having any clean clothes so you have to wear all that doesn’t fit and look like you’re wearing “Dad’s golfing clothes.” Or getting a surprise gift in the mail and it ends up being “boring underwear”. In the end, it’s hard to be grumpy when someone makes you laugh and forget what you were grumpy about.

Similarly, Noodles from I’m So Grumpy (I’ve had this book for a VERY long time. I believe it is out of print now.) is having a tough day. Nothing is going his way. But those tickles in the end help him forget all about it.

Bridging Prior Knowledge

The kiddos could definitely relate to these books. They’ve shared the characters feelings. Moving this understanding to an ocean-themed writing lesson took a little more discussion.

We talked about what it might mean when someone says, “Ah… you are a perfect little pearl.” “And what it means if you are being “crabby“.

We followed this with a writing about things that make us crabby and how that makes us feel.  

The Crab and Pearl Craft

To tie in the pearls, we made our oysters with little plastic pearls inside. Because this another ocean-themed writing lesson, we made crabs to hold both the writing and the oysters. They were added to our tide pool bulletin board “I’m a Perfect Pearl, But Sometimes I Get a Little CRABBY!”

Ocean-themed writing lessons are ruling our world right now. Our classroom is filled with fun sea crafts and writing. You can see more of them here.