This morning, I was happily enjoying myself, (which means, I was drinking coffee and everyone was ignoring me) when my daughter slyly asked if I was ready for the day.
Ugh.
She was going to suggest an outing. I’m a super big home body and love my home days unstructured.
But when your 22-year-old daughter wants to spend time with you… you say ‘Yes’. Today she planned for us to go for a walk at the river. It was quite cold but dry and pleasant.
The draw was the salmon. My husband loves to fish and he hasn’t had much time to get out lately. Daughter thought that Hubby should at least get to see some fish.
It was a lovely walk with not too many people on the trail. We saw a heron, lots of ducks and the salmon. The water was the perfect depth to see the salmon swimming without too much of a reflection.
The spot we went to was the same area that I take my class for nature walks. We will be heading here later this week so they can have time to explore and watch the salmon just like my family did today.
All of my students live in the neighborhoods that border this park and most go for walks and explore here. I find the difference between a family walk and a school walk is often time. As their teacher, I’m willing to stay in one spot for a long time while the children explore. Often parents have a plan that doesn’t include 20 minutes spent watching the fish.
I would think that most school aren’t lucky enough to be this close to a spawning channel but I thought that it would be nice to share what I do to teach about the salmon so you can try it in your classroom. Some of these things I do with kindergarten and some when I had grade one. The grade one’s also raise salmon eggs and observe them grow for a few months before releasing them in the spawning channel.
Tools I use to teach salmon
We watch the video Magic School Bus Goes Upstream. I love it but you might want to preview it as one of my teacher friends finds it gross. If you don’t have a copy of the video you can find the book on Amazon. This version of the book is a newer adaptation by Scholastic and has less science facts than the original but for kindergarten it’s great. The bus transforms into a salmon and makes the trek upstream.
The book, Run Salmon Run is quite good. It also tells of the salmon life cycle and is a lovely read aloud. I really like the artwork in this book. When my students want to draw a salmon independently this is the book they use for a reference.
This non-fiction book about salmon is also quite good.
There are also many books about the lifecycle of the salmon that you might be able to find in your library. I find that some classes want all the details and will want to hear a quite complex text while other classes want a simple version. I tend to take the classes point of view – there are always many other things to learn if they aren’t interested in a topic.
Just try & keep this tune out of your head!
I just love this video. On my personal Pinterest page, it’s my most pinned pin. One year, it was also my most requested video from my class. I just love how they altered the lyrics. After you have watched it once, take the time to pause it and discuss what is happening in the video. Sometimes, students just sit back, watch and enjoy without getting the academic value that we hope.
It was done by theFrizzlives – they have a Youtube channel.
I’ve also made this booklet cover to go with our learning. I just print the cover and then staple a few pages to it. Then I cut them in half. I prefer to use plain pages with my classes so I don’t make the insides fancy. I’m good with the students filling the books with their pictures and drawings instead of filling in blanks or answering questions.
If you would like a copy just click on the link below the picture and the cover will download for you.
If you use it, I would love to see a picture of your student’s learning.
To finish up your learning about salmon, you could bring in some smoked salmon to share. Or just keep it for yourself and pair it with a nice white wine. 😉
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