Open house is around the corner peeps! I have so much to do. I have a few things to share with you about that – but I’m a little behind. But our ocean-themed classroom is coming along wonderfully. If you’d like to see some of what I’ve done in the past for our ocean themed classroom, check out {THIS} post.
A Killer Whale
Last week we made this huge killer whale. The kids LOVE doing this. Honestly, there really isn’t anything academic about this. It is a great end of the year – work collaboratively and make it great – kind of activity.
The kids did a great job.
I was so busy “overseeing” I forgot to take pictures of each step of the process. But if you want your own way too large killer whale hanging in your classroom, here’s what you do:
- Sandwich 1 long piece of white butcher paper between 2 equally long pieces of black butcher paper.
- Using a white crayon, draw an ENORMOUS outline of a whale, minus the flippers.
- Staple the sheets together in a few places (within the outline of the whale) so the papers don’t move away from each other while cutting.
- Have a group of students work together to cut out the whale. (Because of 30 students I have 2 groups take turns on this.)
- Another group (a couple of groups for me) start tearing apart the butcher paper that was cut off as well as a little extra and ball that paper up loosely. Then they place these balls of paper under the black piece, but on top of the white piece.
- The last group (or 2) staples all around the whale being sure to line up the pieces and keep the “stuffing” inside.
- Turn the whale over and cut off the black paper where appropriate to reveal the white underneath.
- Cut, stuff, and staple a flipper-shaped piece and then use packing tape to adhere it to the whale.
- I have a drop ceiling with those metal braces/frames/support thingys between each panel. I loop a piece of fishing line around a couple of those frames, tie it in a knot and hang a paperclip (opened) from it.
- Put several layers of packing tape on the whale in the area from where it will hang, then put a hole punch through that tape and the butcher paper and hang it.
I raffle this huge thing off at Open House. It is shocking to me how many parents allow their children to enter the raffle. I would NEVER want a 7-8ft. paper whale in my house! What do they do with it?
A Whale of a Tale
The kiddos wrote their Whale of a Tale stories this past week. So cute. They are so creative.
This lesson, like my other writing lessons, begins with some narrative story boxes and a pre-write plan. The kids are masters at this now. They need little to no direction from me. I absolutely love the growth they’ve shown in writing. Their ownership of the writing process is inspiring and truly heart-warming.
This is one of the components of the Writing Through the Sea resource. Read more about that here.
Their stories are under the whales. I so enjoy watching their parents’ eyes light up when they read their child’s creative adventure stories. Not a year goes by where at least one parent asks how each story was so different. They often find it hard to believe that the kids do these stories entirely on their own! They think I help them write each one. Nope. Their writing skills have soared!
See the kiddos’ names on the whales? I only do this for Open House. It makes it much easier for parents to find their child’s projects when their names are VERY large. I type them up in a clear, bold, large font, print them out and make several copies. Then, each time we do an activity, they glue on a copy of their name.
A Sea of Ocean Theme Classroom Writing and Crafts
We are doing A LOT of writing! We also have crabs, sea stars and sharks from Writing Through the Sea on the plans for this theme.
The sea stars are a quick and easy craft that cover our 5 Ocean Facts expository paragraphs.
The crab is for our “I’m a Perfect Pearl, but Sometimes I Get a Little Crabby” bulletin board. The kids write some incredible stories about the things that make them “a little crabby” with that one!
The shark is from our “Oh Sharky! What Sharp Teeth You Have!” expository shark fact writing lesson.
The Whale of a Tale narrative writing lesson and craft is definitely a kiddo favorite. There is just something about killer whales!
Read more about these writing lessons and crafts here.
Extending the Ocean Theme into Word Work
My little friends will be using some adorably cute ocean-themed word work and grammar activities during independent practice.
This resource is so much fun! There are all kinds of goodies in it.
My classes absolutely LOVE board games. It is always the most popular way to practice sight words in my class.
This one comes with words pre-printed and with another board that allows the teacher to add words he/she wants the kids to focus upon.
This ocean-themed inference reader is absolutely one of my favorites. It’s so different. The kids have so much fun investigating and looking for clues to help them figure out which animal is being discussed.
The Spectacular Sea Creatures sentence-building game is a fantastic way to practice those sentence making skills. Students work with subject and detail cards to make creative – and often hilarious- sentences. This can be used as a verbal activity – perfect for developing language skills with English Language Learners. It is also an excellent word work center for students to practice writing.
Our ocean unit is my FAVORITE! These ocean-themed vocabulary cards are a perfect accompanying piece! We use them for all sorts of things. The kids refer to them almost daily during their writing during our ocean habitat unit.
Finally, these ocean-themed sentence building activities are a fantastic way to practice those sentence making skills. Encourage interrogative, declarative and imperative sentence building. Inspire your students to make creative, detailed sentences that showcase their knowledge.
So… this will cover our reading, writing, grammar and our science as well as some crafting fun! You can grab Oceans of Fun in either of my stores.
With all of these wonderful activities, it is pretty easy to get completely engaged in our ocean theme classroom and maintain our excitement for learning even as we begin the countdown for the last few weeks of school!
