The Wonderful Ocean World

Mr. Tate’s class travels to Sunnyside Beach to help clean up trash. Captain Ned encourages the students to listen to the sea and they hear the many creatures that count on clean ocean water to survive. Captain Ned teaches the students that healthy oceans are important to all earth’s creatures.
The kids see how all of the wild life at the beach counts, with counting pages such as one whale, two seas turtles and all the way to ten bottlenose dolphins.

Breathe by Scott Magoon

This sweet story follows a young whale on a journey of discovery as he experiences his first day at sea on his own! He swims, explores, and makes friends in his marine habitat, and then returns home to his mother.

Fabulous Fishes by Susan Stockdale

Fabulous Fishes is a rhyming picture book that is wonderfully illustrated with brightly colored fish. The book describes different types of fish with simple rhymes. The last two pages describe each fish and the oceans in which they are found.

This is a really fun book about a squid who thinks he’s the biggest thing in the ocean. He compares himself to all the animals in the ocean that are smaller than him, like the crab, octopus and turtles. Little does he know that there is an animal bigger than him that eats him!

Here is a link to some storytime ideas for this book. https://www.kidssoup.com/craft-and-resource/story-time-im-the-biggest-thing-in-the-ocean-crafts-and-activities

Here’s a link to NOAA Fisheries’ Education Resources which are compiled from NOAA experts and partner organizations to provide high quality, science-based materials and activities for students and teachers interested in exploring the science behind marine resource management and conservation.

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/educators_students/education.html

Here’s a guide to Greater Atlantic Fish Species.

https://www.greateratlantic.fisheries.noaa.gov/educational_resources/seafood/fish/

Here’s an Itsy Bitsy ocean book children can create.

http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/learning-letters/ib-book-ocean.htm

Here’s a fun activity featuring oceans zones and layers of the sea with a hands-on science project.

http://www.kcedventures.com/blog/layers-of-the-ocean-under-the-sea-science-activities

 

Birds, birds, birds!

The theme for this week’s storytime was birds!

Early Bird by Toni Yuly

With simple geometric shapes and vibrant colors, this fun story follows Early Bird as she gets an early start to her day. Directional words such as “across,” “through,” “under,” “up,” “around,” and “over” are used as she finally finds the early worm.

Peck, Peck, Peck by Lucy Cousins

On the first page, a little woodpecker has just learned to peck. He continues to peck everything he comes across! He peck-peck-pecks right through a door and then through a hat, a mat, tennis rackets, and a jacket and continues through the entire house! The preschoolers loved seeing him peck his way through the book, with actual holes in the book.

Here are some great science activities including a beak activity and how to create a bird seed buffet.

http://toddlertalesfun.blogspot.com/2012/11/week-four-woodpeckers-and-beaks.html

Here’s a printable woodpecker craft.

http://madebyjoel.com/2010/10/woodpecker.html

Froodle by Antoinette Portis

The birds in the neighborhood know what sound to make but one day little brown bird decides he wants to try something new. Crow is not amused but some of the other birds are intrigued. The birds begin to make some fun sounds that made the preschoolers laugh! The book reminds children that it’s okay to be different and sing your own tune.

I was able to share some delightful toy birds that sang their song when squeezed. The children enjoyed guessing what each bird was and imitated their song.

This site at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers many bird calls that you can listen to online.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/search.aspx

The children also enjoyed the story of a baby owl titled “I’m Not Cute!”

as well as a counting book called Big Fat Hen.

Here’s a free printable of a life cycle of a bird that you can color and cut apart and put in order.

https://education.scholastic.co.uk/resources/27504

Here’s a free printable bird anatomy worksheet for learning the external parts of a bird to help identify birds.

http://layers-of-learning.com/bird-anatomy-worksheet/?platform=hootsuite