Last week we celebrated book week at our school, and this year’s theme was Celebrating and safeguarding the beauty of our planet! It was a wonderful way to start our new project ‘Big Fish’ as we talked about the importance of keeping the sea clean. The children loved every second of it!
As an educator my first thought when preparing an activity is that whatever I am doing must be fun, engaging and age appropriate for the little ones. I must admit that at first I was a little bit worried as to how I can explain the effects of sea pollution on fish. However, as always there is no better way to learn than to experience it first-hand. And that is exactly what we did!
Let me show you…
I started out the activity by reading the book ‘The fish with the deep sea smile’ by Margaret Wise
Brown. The book itself was very fun to read as the author sends us on a rollicking rhyming adventure throughout the story. The book tells the story of a father and his children as they go fishing all across the sea in search for the fish with a deep sea smile. As they fished, they caught many fish but only at the end they succeeded to find a fish with a smile.
We then discussed the story, and it is at this point that high order questions play a very important role. These type of questions allow the children to use their thinking skills by analysing and evaluating the information that was given to them. They are much more effective than questions where the children need to only answer a simple yes or no. Eventually they came to the conclusion that fish are not happy due to sea pollution and that is why it was very difficult to find a fish with a smile.
Afterwards my curious bunch investigated what happens when we put waste in the sea. All I did was prepare two basins; one with water and plastic fish, and the other one with different waste. Some of the waste consisted of plastic bottles, plastic caps, chocolate wrappers, plastic bags and teabags. The children chose an item from the waste basin and one by one put it into the water basin. As they observed what was happening they were commenting on how ugly the ‘sea’ looks now and that it is not clear anymore. The children also commented that now the fish would get sick and they would have a tummy ache.
I then prepared three different stations were the children can further play, explore and investigate.
Station number 1: Rice Sensory bin
In this station I prepared a sensory bin which consisted of blue coloured rice, small plastic fish and different recycled material to play with. I believe that it is very important that the children are involved in the process of each activity. In this case, the children had coloured the rice themselves the day before in order for it to be ready for the next day.
There are several ways children can benefit from a sensory bin. Apart from being very calming for children, they can also help them to increase their focus and attention span. Lastly, it is a great way for children to engage in communication with each other.
Station number 2: Wave Collage
In this area the children had a big cut out of a wave, glue and paintbrushes, and lots of recycled material. Some of the materials consisted of bubble wrap, plastic wrappers, plastic bags, lollipop sticks and water bottle caps. The children explored the different materials as they created a collage. Fine motor control and eye-hand coordination were at the heart of this activity. However, the children also explored the different materials through their senses … and popped the occasional bubble in the process.
The children were also involved in the preparation of this activity as they were the ones who had brought the different recycled materials from home.
Station number 3: Taking care of our fish
As they say the messier the happier! In this area the children had to clean the fish which were in the ‘polluted’ water. For this activity all I prepared was two trays with water and soap and a couple of toothbrushes. The children had to take one fish at a time and clean it from the polluted water. Yes, it was very messy but the children enjoyed it very much!
We then wrapped up these activities by recounting all that we had mentioned before. I was so happy to see them so excited about everything!
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