Sea Animals- Ocean Theme for Preschool ELL

                                Link to the resources:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sea-Animals-for-English-Language-Learners-1309939

Watch the video with all the resources:

            CUTOUTS: Attach all the sea animals cutouts on the board and identify them using your pointer.The cutouts work for many things. It can be matching the words to the pictures.

     I included words to extend the prewriting and pre reading skills.

Teacher: It´s a shell. (write the word shell underneath the cutout)

Point to the cutouts and the words for students to identify.

Teacher: Point to the shell. It´s a shell.   Point to the word shell. 

Make puppets using old tolet paper rolls and the

 cutouts and display them on the chalk ledge and let the children greet them by saying: Hello, Hi, How are you ?

Distribute the template and materials to the students so they can make their own sea animals puppets. Name the puppets and have the students hold up the correct one.

Teacher: Fish! Students: fish!

Then, hold up the seal Puppet and have it speak to the group.

I´m a seal.

Have the class hold up their puppet and do the same. Continue with all the other puppets.

Patterns: Using the puppets to make a pattern: seal-turtle-seal-turtle. 

Introduce the concept of pattern. Start the pattern with puppets and ask them what will come next.Have them independently create a pattern with their puppets.

Counting: use the cutouts to count. Write the numbers 1 to 5 on the board with colored chalk or markers. Point to each number and name them for the children to repeat each one.

Invite a student with a crab puppet to the front and count one crab.

Teacher: one crab.

Invite another student with a frog puppet to the front and count.

Teacher: one crab, two crabs, three crabs, four crabs, five crabs.

Continue until five or more and use any sea animal.

  
Plurals: Make extra copies of the cutouts. Put them up on the board. Point to a set of same sea animals and help the class name them.

Teacher: Sharks. They are sharks.

Fish. It´s a fish.

You can also use the counting cards.

Run to the board Game:  Place all the cutouts on the board. Name two students and a sea animal. Have them quickly stand up , run to the board and remove the cutout naming the sea animal. Continue with more sea animal words.

Or play the same game  as I spy. Say I spy a whale. 

Review colors using the cutouts. Have the students identify the color of the jellyfish.

Teacher: What color is the jellyfish?

Students: It´s pink.

Make sea headbands.Have the students color and cutout the sea animals. Use stickers to complete the headband.Fit the construction paper strips around the child´s head. Staple the ends.

 

The cutouts can be used in many ways, take a look!

Tracing cards:            

  Hand out the tracing cards.  Name the sea animal for the students to color if you are using the black and white version. Ask children to trace each word.

Teacher: Point to the fish. Color the fish red. Trace the word fish.

You can laminate the cards or cover with contact paper. The sheet pockets are good as well. Have some white board markers ready and a book ring to put them all together.it can be easily erased with a napkin or paper towel.

These cards can be used as coloring pages. Coloring pages give children time to calm down and focus. It can also be used as a backup activity for those minutes until the session is over.

 Math : It´s important to include a focused math activity in which math is the major goal, giving the children the chance to practice math in an engaging context.

Write the numbers 1 to 12 in order on the board. Point to each number and have students repeat each one. Then point to a number in a random order and have students clap that number of times.

You can make a math book stapling together all the pages. Let the students take the book home to practice.

 Have the children count the sea animals on each card.

Teacher: let´s count the dolphins. One, two, three. Three dolphins.

Students: three dolphins!

Use the numeral cards for this activity. Have them match the numeral cards with the numeral word.

Paper bag puppets: these are easy to make and fun to  make. Write to me if you need the templates. ( ei98srl@gmail.com) It would be nice to have any sea animal puppet as a class mascot for the unit. You could give it a special place to live in, maybe a nice decorated box as an ocean.

Coloring page: This can be used as a closing activity to reinforce the theme. 

It would be nice to play some ocean sound music.

Point to the different sea animals on the page for the students to identify.  You could make a larger copy to put up on the board. Have students color as they wish and have them come up to the front and show it to the class describing the sea scene.

Student: This is the fish. It is red.

Another option is to prepare a color key, or dictate the color that each sea animals should be colored.

Sea Animals Graphing: children will enjoy taking part in the graph by actively participating, they can color in the picture and glue it in place. I made the black and white version

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Flashcards: children can learn to read words on individual flashcards faster .They can match the sea animal words to the flashcards.

Show the children the colored flashcard and have them show you their puppet discussing the animal´s characteristic.

Ask me for the Sea Animals Flashcards file and upload it to the tablet for your students to review the words without printing the flashcards. Take a look!

 

Games: play BINGO!! I provided the blank template to make copies for each child to draw their  4 favorite sea animals. The cards are for you to name the sea animals.

Pockets Charts: they are not used enough in the EFL class.It will help to develop word recognition skill using predictable texts.  The color words are in black and white and colored version.  This pocket chart can be used for fingerpoint reading, using a small pointer, which is easier to control and isolate the words.If you don´t have the pocket chart use your blackboard or table.

 Sea Book: using the cutouts I created this graduated book. I got an excellent explanation at www.pinterest.com on how to assemble it. 

       The link is http://bookzoompa.wordpress.com/

I created this other book, it can be used as tracers.

   Snorkelings: Go to :

 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Enlightened-Elephant  and get the clip art. I made my set out of fun foam.

You can also use them to read books.

I know that many teachers still like to use worksheets in class and even more if you have so many children to handle at the same time.
This is a two way worksheet. One is a regular worksheet to identify the vocabulary and the other is put the animals in context, which is the Ocean or the Sea.

Students describe their seaquarium!

Dictate the colors for each number, then have the children match the fish to the number.

Teacher:  What color is Number 2 ?

Students: It´s green.

Use the worksheets for speaking purpose. Take a look!

Or make a number line.

Once the children finish tracing the numbers and coloring the sea animals, have the cut the animals and place them in numerical order on the table or glue them on a piece of paper.

And , cut and paste the sea animals by sorting them into big and small,
Teacher: Name the big animals.
Students: dolphin, sea, octopus, shark.
Teacher: Name the small animals.
Students: fish and crab.

More letter arts and crafts!

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