WHALES IN THE SEA
Try one or both of these art ideas with your group.
|| Invite the children to fingerpaint blue waves all over
pieces of fingerpaint paper. When the paint has dried,
give the children gray or black construction paper cutouts
of a whale to glue onto their papers.
|| Let older children trace around whale cookie cutters
on gray construction paper and cut out the shapes to glue
onto their ocean waves. Encourage them to make several
cutouts to create a pod.
Let each of your children paint blue waves on the front
side of a thin paper plate. Cut a slit across the middle
of each plate, leaving a 2-inch margin at each end of
the slit. Have each child glue a 3½-inch whale
shape, cut from heavy paper, onto one end of a craft stick.
Demonstrate how to work the puppet by inserting the other
end of the craft stick down through the slit on the painted
side of the plate and moving the stick up and down on
the back side of the plate to make the whale dive in and
out of the waves. Let the children use their puppets to
accompany whale songs and stories.
Select five large index cards. Cut each card into two
puzzle pieces, making sure that each puzzle fits together
differently. On the left-hand piece of each puzzle, write
a numeral from 1 to 5, and on the righ-hand piece, rubber-stamp
a matching number of whale prints. Mix up all the puzzle
pieces, place them in a pile, and let your children put
the puzzles back together.
Cut a mother whale shape and a baby whale, or calf, shape
out of several different colors of felt. Place the mother
shapes on a flannelboard and give the calf shapes to your
group. Ask the children to help the calves find their
mothers by matching their colors. Then have them place
the calves alongside their mothers on the flannelboard.
Cut several sizes of whales ranging from small to large out
of heavy gray or black paper. Place the shapes in a pile. Then
let your children take turns lining up the whales from smallest
to largest or from largest to smallest. If you wish, have them
line up the whales on a blue paper “ocean.”
|| Use picture books to show and discuss the varieties
of whales and their characteristics. Explain that whales
are mammals and point out how they differ from fish.
|| The largest whale of all, the blue whale, measures
100 feet in length. Take your children outdoors and measure
off 100 feet on a sidewalk.
|| Put on some music and let the children pretend to be
whales diving down into the water and swimming back up
again to spout.
|| Play a recording of whale sounds and ask the children
to make up stories about what the whales are saying. Write
down their ideas and use them to make a group whale book.
HAVE YOU SEEN THE BIG GRAY WHALE?
Tune: “The Muffin Man”
Have you seen the big gray whale,
Yes, I’ve seen the big gray whale,
The big gray whale, the big gray whale?
Have you seen the big gray whale
That’s swimming in the sea?
The big gray whale, the big gray whale.
Yes, I’ve seen the big gray whale.
He waved his tail at me!
More verses: “Have you seen the orca whale; Have you seen
the big blue whale,” and so forth.
|| Use whale cookie cutters to make cookies. Let your children
decorate the cookies with frosting and sprinkles.
|| Invite the children to make placemats for snacktime. Have
them trace around whale cookie cutters on pieces of construction
paper and then color the whale shapes with crayons.