Shark Week
It’s shark week, a week to increase awareness about sharks and binge watch about them too on the Discovery Channel. We had a fun week enjoying some shark themed learning. I made a printable baby shark craft, shark week word activity, and math mat that the kids really liked. We also made pool noodle sharks. Everything is free to download below. Hope it can help your family to join in the fun as well!
This file is best printed out onto regular printer paper (or cardstock) and used as a template to cut out additional pieces from construction paper. As construction paper is pretty thin, you can hand cut through a whole pile very quickly, making this craft very easy to set up. Just hand over the piles of paper with glue and either a black marker or crayon and let the kids go to town. They had fun creating the whole shark family and were impressed that they could make them from such simple shapes (just piecing together circles, semicircles, and triangles). If you want to be more true to the characters, you can add a bottom row of teeth for Daddy and Mommy Shark. Grandma Shark also has glasses and Grandpa Shark has eyebrows and a white mustache that can be drawn or pasted in if desired. This craft is fun but be aware of the redundant yet catchy song or humming that may accompany this…. doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.
This file is best printed out and either given to your child, or hung up on the fridge and used for your kids to brainstorm as many words as possible that they can make by unscrambling the letters in shark week. This was a great spelling and vocabulary activity for my oldest two (ages 6 and 8). It also provided great reading and writing practice for my preschooler and soon-to-be first grader. My preschooler was even able to discern some of sister’s sight words from last year.
This file is best printed out and slipped into a laminate pouch and used with dry erase markers for some early addition fun. I found a box of dominoes at the Dollar Tree and poured them into a bowl. My preschooler and kindergarten grad both enjoyed this activity. They would pick out a domino, count the dots, write the numbers counted down, forming their addition equation to solve. They would then place the corresponding goldfish crackers into their ten frames, count, and solve. I ended up using two dominoes at a time for my kindergarten grad as using one was too simple for her. Don’t have dominoes? You can punch out circles as bubbles and write addition problems for your kids to solve. I had to punch out bubbles to write more difficult math equations for my soon-to-be third grader to join in the fun. Also in place of goldfish crackers, you can use balls of playdough or other small manipulatives such as Legos, Cheerios, or pom-poms. This would also be a great activity for math centers in the classroom and is very easy to set up.
These pool noodle sharks were so fun and simple to make. I sliced a blue pool noodle using a knife and cutting board and cut off the ends of blue plastic spoons and knives using a pair of sharp scissors. I also made slits into the sides, top, and bottom of each pool noodle disc using my scissors, and the kids inserted their shark fins. They stuck on adhesive velcro eyes and punched out black felt pupils that immediately stuck to the velcro. You can also glue on googly eyes but we found we can’t use them in our crafts at the moment as our youngest still likes to eat them. Lastly, we inserted a white plastic fork through the bottom to create the sharp shark teeth, using scissors to cut off the rest. I also added a few drops of red food coloring to simulate bloody water for some extra fun. Did you know that sharks are color blind and can’t really smell blood from a mile away? According to current research, their sense of smell is just like that of any other fish. Who knew? Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo!
Your child may also enjoy:
More Writing Activities for Kids
I create more printable activities for kids here with the goal of helping to grow kids who love to learn.
If you use these printables or make these crafts, I would love to see it! Please use #sodangfun on social media, tag me @sodangfun on Instagram, or post to my Facebook page.
I hope your family enjoys a fun shark week!
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