Learning about fish

To introduce the children to information about fish, I have been reading a few pages of What's It Like to be a Fish? to them each day.  I am trying to figure out how to embed an image of a book from Amazon into the text of my blog posts but haven't got it figured out yet.  However, I've added a link on the Amazon sidebar if you are interested. 

Before I read this type of book to the children I have them "wake up their brains".  We rub our heads and wiggle our listening ears a little bit.  I have found this gets them into a good state of mind to pay attention to what I am reading.  I also tell them that after I read I will have them tell me what they learned about fish. 

Following the read aloud, I call on students individually to tell what they remember from what I've read.  This is pretty hard for young children, but it's a very good thing to help them practice.  They are very inclined to get a little off-topic and start telling their own "fish stories" such as "Once I had a fish and he died" or "My grandma had a fish", etc.  I gently tell them that they can tell me about THEIR fish later, but this is a time to think hard about what we read in the fish BOOK and tell me what they remember.  I have been pretty impressed with what they are able to recall.

Some of the main things we have learned so far about fish are:

*Fish are living things.

*Fish live in water.  Water is their habitat.  (We talked briefly about the fact that a habitat is the place where something lives.)

*Fish have fins and specially shaped bodies that allow them to swim very well and very fast.

*When fish open and close their mouths, they are "breathing."  They take in water, their bodies remove the oxygen and then the water leaves their body through their gill openings. 

*Fish eat flakes that are made from ground-up flies, shrimp, crab, fish, oats, corn, carrots, and vitamins.

If you are the parent of a child in my class, be sure to ask your child what they are learning about fish.  Next week we will learn the parts of a fish and we'll have out some more work on the science shelf to support that learning.

Oh............I almost forgot.  We have a new class pet named, Finnegan.  And...........as you may have guessed............he's a goldfish.  He lives in a little bowl on our peace shelf.  But I FORGOT to take a photo of him.  Perhaps he'll make an appearance in a future post.