F is for Fish

ASL: F  and  fish

F template: glue on feathers or use a stamp pad to fill with fingerprints   Speaking of fingerprints, don’t miss this opportunity to share the fun of Ed Emberly’s fingerprint book!  It has a 5 star rating for good reason. Even little people can make great designs with a bit of help from your pen. The look on their faces when they see what happens to their fingerprints is priceless. : )

Lit:

Saint/Bible story:

St. Anthony preaches to the fishes or the story of Jesus and the Loaves and the Fishes (a boatload of lessons for this story at the link – pun intended ; )) or the Fisher of Men story. We will print this classic art image as well as one of the Loaves and Fishes for Art appreciation as well.

Montessori Trays:  fabric basket, felt board – there are lots of premade sets available or you can get books like Fun with Felt from CHC to make felt saints to go with your studies(can’t find it online so will try to track down a resource later!), feely bag – we took a large ziplock bag, tossed some foam fish into it and filled it with blue shampoo to make a fish ‘pond’. Another feely box option is to put one of a pair of objects into a medium sized can with a large sock pulled over it. The child can reach in but not see the objects. They must pair by touch.  I will upload the pics of both to the Funschool Flicker next week. The sensory box can have feathers this week. (this is our take on a sensory table which is bigger and more expensive) Discovery bottle – ocean (blue food color in water for half the bottle, oil in the rest) Foam work  One of my Montessori homeschool mom friends has made file folder type tray games with craft foam figures like this. Darned if I can find her or her pics!  If you are out there please send me your link!

Snack: Goldfish crackers, fruit rollups, fruit salad (yummy yummy – sorry, I broke into song for a minute ; )) fig newtons, and fish sticks

Math: Fewer/Less than (see lit list) Throughout the week look for opportunities to compare amounts of similar things. Are there fewer apples or oranges left? Are their fewer pennies or nickels in my purse? Are there fewer socks or towels in the wash?  You can have the same discussion about full/empty as an alternative or addition.  Use a ruler to introduce "foot" measure.

Shapes: review previously learned shapes with pattern blocks or geometric solids

Science –  If you are a brave mom you can dissect a whole fish from the grocery store. Its smelly but cheap and memorable.   You can learn about all sorts of fish at enchantedlearning and print out pages to color for the binders. Betta fish make excellent low maintenance pets for the preschool room.  Flower fairy F – Forget me not  You may want to explain to your students that in Victorian days the Forget Me Not was a popular image for embroidery patterns, especially those given to friends.

montessorimaterials has a few different fish card sets to print. Montimats has free fruit and flower cards here.

Lit:

Swimmy

The Fisherman and His Wife

Goldfish and Chrysanthemums  sweet story about a girl who creates a tiny koi pond to cure her Chinese grandmother’s homesickness

Surrounded by Sea by Gail Gibbons

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

More, Fewer, Less

Fish for Letters game: label paper fish with a letter and paper clip. Fish with a magnet on a string and have the child name the letters he catches. You could ‘fish’ for fridge magnet letters too.

for beginning readers this little fish rebus style story is good fun

Art:  Chinese fish mobile craft or the paper bag fish or the paper plate fish or this very nice Japanese koi fish project   DLTK has even more fish crafts to go with the Fishers of Men verse from Scripture and from the Jonah story.  Footprint craft ideas found here.

Drama – Face painting

Fingerplay (starts with F and is another preschool mainstay:

Fish Story

One, two, three, four, five
(Hold up fingers while counting)
Once I caught a fish alive.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten
(hold up additional fingers)
Then I let it go again.
Why did I let it go?
Because it bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
The little finger on the right.
(hold up pinky on the right hand)