Today’s post is written by guest writer, Ivory Gilcher, a Pre-K teacher in Tennessee.
I wanted to share with you an activity I do with my preschoolers during our animal/habitat unit. We discuss all types of habitats and when it is time to talk about oceans, we read the book, Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. After we read Rainbow Fish, we discuss all the things a fish needs in his habitat of the ocean. We then make an “ocean” or “fish tank”.
To make this, we take a snack size zip lock bag and add a decent squirt or two of LA LOOKS blue hair gel. Then we take a few sparkly fish stickers and stick them in the gel. I then let the students sprinkle a little glitter on top for fish food, and I push out all the air bubbles in the bag and zip them closed for the students. The product turns out ridiculously cute and the children love it because they can squish the gel around and it makes the fish stickers move as if they were swimming.
As an extension to the activity, I stapled the “fish tanks” to a white piece of paper and asked the students to retell a part of the story. This activity is great for hands-on and real world learning. The lesson incorporates multiple subjects and can be fun for hours. I hope you like it and can try it in your class! It is extremely inexpensive. I think I paid 3 dollars for a box of zip lock bags, 2 dollars for a bottle of hair gel, and the stickers were only a dollar at Dollar Tree.
