+ Pre-K Aquatic Mt. Washigto Childre s Ceter Keepig freshwater fish
+ Objective We choose a freshwater fish tak to itroduce our childre to popular types of pets. May of our childre have allergies, ad fish were a perfect optio for us. Help teach childre how to be resposible ad care for other livig thigs How to feed ad maitai our freshwater fish ad fish tak Develop vocabulary ad skills for creatig realistic habitats for our pet fish Discuss what life is like uder the sea
+ Evaluatio Throughout each of our lessos, we worked o differet forms of evaluatio for our Pre-K classroom. May of our evaluatio methods ivolved artwork ad sharig at circle time We also evaluated paret participatio by askig for voluteers to help with tak setup ad doatios by addig blurbs to our mothly ewsletters.
+ Itroducig Our Fish We set up our fish taks over a weeked to surprise the childre. Before revealig the aquariums, we asked the childre if ay of them have pets at home ad what types of pets. This became our joural etry for the day, drawigs of each child s pets or a pet they would like. We the gathered for circle time, revealig the taks ad askig the childre what type of pet might live i the tak?
+ Itroducig Our Fish These are some of the Pets We Have at Home May of our childre have cats ad/or dogs. Fish were a ew ad excitig pet to lear about.
+ Rules of the Road Over the ext few days, as we added fish to the taks, we talked about the process of how fish were added. The mai fish we added is a blue betta amed Thackeray. Each day, childre would draw ames from popsicle sticks to see who would help feed the fish that day. We discussed how much each fish eeded to eat.
+ Rules of the Road We made feedig time a math activity, havig the childre always cout out three pellets, droppig them i the tak oe by oe. Durig circle time we would talk about what our fish eat ad how it s ot like huma food. We played a guessig game usig flashcards with images of differet food items. The childre guessed which food type a fish might eat. As part of a circle time activity oe week after Thackeray joied the tak, we set up a giat poster board. The teachers asked the childre to help remember the rules we had goe over durig the past week, ad the teachers made the poster, addig differet images to remid the childre. The poster was displayed i the classroom. Rules like oly three pellets ad do t bag o the glass were added by the childre.
+ Uder Water Iteractive Ofte times the childre wated to pet the fish as they would their dog or cat. We talked about why we ca t pet the fish because they live ad breathe uder water. Oe of the childre eve asked if fish could seeze. We did some extra research to aswer his questio, which spawed a sciece experimet. Fish caot seeze because they do t have lugs, but they ca burp ad yaw! We created a sciece experimet helpig to teach the childre how gills help the fish to breathe like our lugs help us. We used a cup, coffee filter, rubber bad ad water with colored sad to teach the childre how gills filter oxyge. The sad represeted the oxyge that would get caught i the gills (coffee filter ) as the water mixture was poured over the filter.
+ Uder Water Iteractive To help the childre uderstad what a sea creature might feel like without puttig our pets i dager, we created a aquatic water play table. We filled the table with water, addig several grow-a-fish that expaded i the water. The childre were able to watch them grow bigger, just as our fish did, ad they were able to play ad feel the slimy creatures that filled the tak. We also added sad ad fabric aquarium plats to allow the childre to explore.
+ Life Aquatic To build o our iteractivity, we created a life-size betta habitat. We made a betta cave for the childre to hide ad play just like our Thackeray. Giat streamers were hug to represet the plats ad seaweed i the tak. A giat cardboard box was paited to match our coral caves ad we eve made a childre s betta hammock to act like the leaves our betta likes to float ad rest o!
+ Life Aquatic To help the childre remember what we were learig, oe of our teachers wrote a sog for our betta fish: Way Dow Deep Sug to The Wheels o the Bus Fish use fis to get aroud, get aroud, get aroud Fish use fis to get aroud, way deep dow They breathe with gills uder the sea, uder the sea, uder the sea They breathe with gills uder the sea, way deep dow Bubbles from their mouths go blub, blub, blub, blub, blub, blub Bubbles from their mouths go blub, blub, blub, way deep dow Fid them hidig i a cave, i a cave, i a cave Fid them hidig i a cave, way deep dow All the kids i the class are excited to see, excited to see, excited to see All the kids i the class are excited to see our fried Thackeray!
+ Coclusio Our childre cotiue to lear ew thigs about our fish every day. We have begu to add ew types of plats ad work o creatig portable fish taks with our childre that they ca take home. They are able to desig their ow tak o a paper plate ad add ew fish ad plats over the course of a week. We are cotiuig to get our parets ivolved by askig them to share photos of their pets ad iterestig facts they lear with their childre. We have a upcomig field trip plaed to visit our local aquarium to see how other fish live.