Joy School - Sharks

This was a scary week for me! Sharks kind of have a morbid fascination for me; I am terrified of them, but if I come across a movie or a book or a documentary about them, I HAVE to read/watch it.

Lesson Time: We learned lots of very interesting things about sharks. There are many different species of them, and the largest shark is the largest fish in the world. But - there are sharks small enough to be kept in a fish tank in your home like a pet. We learned that shark's have skeletons made of cartilage instead of bone, that they have to swim to breath, and that some sharks have live young.

Craft Time: Our host mom had made a sketch of a great white shark in the ocean, but he was missing his teeth. The first step was to have the kids color in the ocean water and the shark.

Then they got out their glue sticks, and added some sharp pointy teeth.

Because in our lesson time we learned that sharks have several rows of sharp, serrated teeth, and that they are replaced constantly throughout their lives, we had several different sizes of teeth the kids could glue on. Small ones for the ones that are growing in, and large ones for those that had been there a while.

Video Clip: We watched part of a documentary. It gave me the willies!

Snack Time: The mom had gotten large goldfish crackers and even some candy gummy fish for the kids. They got to pretend to be sharks as they 'hunted' their snacks and gobbled them down.

Before they got to eat them though, she did a little math poem with each of them. She started with one number, then a shark came and ate some, and then there were only this many left. She did it a few times letting the children come up with the answers, and then they got to eat their math.

Art Time: We made a shark puzzle. She had prepared a picture of a great white shark mounted on card stock, and cut into puzzle shapes for each child. Then she made a solution of water and food coloring for them to use as paint.

I had never painted with food coloring before, but it worked really well, and dried much faster than regular paints, which was handy.

Then when their puzzles were dry, they got to assemble their sharks.

Singing Time: We sang a fun song to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus, where we adapted the song to be shark actions. For example, 'the mouth on the shark goes snap, snap, snap,' or 'the teeth on the shark go bite, bite, bite,' or 'the tail on the shark goes whoosh, whoosh, whoosh,' and our last one was 'the people in the water shout shark!shark! shark!" It was a funny song that we totally got into.

Wiggle Time: We played a game called Shark in the Ocean. All the kids lined up on one side of the room, and they were the 'fish.' Then a mom was in the middle of the room and was the 'shark.' The children had to try to run from one side to the other without getting 'eaten' (tagged) by the shark. If they were caught, then they were the shark on the next round.

It sounds like an easy enough game, but it was a little too real for some of the kids! Look at her face of real fright as she ran across the room! My little boy was TOO scared, and sat on the couch, refusing to 'swim in the ocean.' Ha!