Something's fishy...............

...........in my classroom this week.  We are beginning our study of the animal kingdom this week.  The first vertebrates we will study in depth are:  FISH!  For the past several weeks I've been busy at night stitching up little felt fishes to go on the science shelf.  I debated about putting these on the math shelf since they are technically counting fish, but I decided to put them on the science shelf where all the other fish work will be.  In upcoming posts, I'll be showing more of the fish work and explaining how I am introducing this to the children.  Today, I am just showing my little felt fish project.

Here is how the work is set up on a tray.  There is a little blue bowl with clear glass pebbles.  These will represent the "bubbles".  The white metal bucket holds the fish.

To do this work, the child takes the tray to a rug.  He/she places the fish in order from 1-10 as shown.  Then, he/she places the correct number of "bubbles" above the fish to correspond with the number on the fish's body.  The hardest part for them is remembering to place the bubbles above the fish since we usually do this type of activity by placing the counters below the number. 

To make the little fish, I just found a fish pattern at Preschool Express and cut out my fish.  I used wool blend felt and whipstitched around the outside leaving an opening.  I filled them with polyfil and stitched them closed.  Then, I used fabric paint to paint the numbers on (the children thought I had used white glue) and hot-glue to attach the wiggle eyes.  Very tactile and fun!!

On a side note...........check out the post I did last week on our watercolor leaves.  If you scroll down in that post you can see the Giving Tree covered with the leaves the children have painted.

Comments

[Laura]

Thanks, Mary! Im so glad you liked this idea!
Take care,
Laura

To: directress@live.com

[Mary]

Your stuffed fish work is awesome!! I made some for my classroom and the children can not get enough of them. Thank you for such a wonderful idea. I also added two other works that are fish related. I have one work that the children can fish. Once the fish are all caught, the children are able to feed. They are only able to feed them the amount on the fish. I used 1-10 to do this work.

[Caitlin]

Oh Laura, I didn't realize that when I posted my pics of this work...that I used the same title for my entry as yours! Guess I internalize things more than I realize.

[Lindart]

The fall tree looks awesome! What are your plans for winter?

[RM]

I want to go to your school!

[Amy from Occupation: Mommy]

These are so adorable! I bet the children love them.