SHARKS! Using 20 Centers and Sharks to Excite Early Learners

Want a great way to engage students in learning...add a shark! Sharks are funny, sneaky, and even scary, but kids love them (at least on paper). What better way to engage learners in the summer than sharks! They are funny (Baby Shark), sneaky (Finding Nemo) and Scary (Shark Week). Add sharks to the summer mix and it’s already fun.

Read Alouds

Shark! Using Sharks to Engage Learners

If you start with a fun topic, students are more willing to put in the work. Kicking off a lesson with Read Alouds is always a great way to introduce students to sharks.

I got a box from Scholastic Book Fairs in the mail and anxiously opened it to see what I ordered. (Have you done that? Ordered something in the mail, but didn’t really remember what you ordered.)

I had ordered a fiction and non-fiction book about sharks. The nonfiction book, The Shark Book, is part of their Side By Side series. I love this.

Each page has a sentence for your early learner AND more details to be read by an adult or older student. It such a great way to engage the learner. The fiction book, The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark, is exactly what it sounds like: a fun version of the Three Little Pigs.

Vocabulary and Whole Group Labeling

Shark! Using Sharks to Engage Learners

In the non-fiction book mentioned above, students are introduced to the body parts of a shark.

Students can help identify and locate parts of the sharks body and label with interactive writing. After the anchor chart is made, students can be given a labeling worksheet to complete independently.

The activity can be differentiated for students by some labeling all “fins” as fins, but others discriminating between pectoral fins, dorsal fins, and pelvic fins.

If you’d like the Shark Labeling Activities, click the link!

Independent Centers

Shark! Using Sharks to Engage Learners

Students can do independent centers with matching letters, spelling CVC words, or making sets all day long, but add a shark fin or shark’s tooth and it suddenly is fun.

Making centers with sharks can be a great theme for summer review or enrichment.

I have created a set in my store with 20 independent centers…11 literacy centers and 9 math centers.

Click the centers picture or Kindergarten Sharks Literacy and Math Centers to see the full set.

SHARKS! Using 20 Centers and Sharks to Excite Early Learners

Sharks are fun…you can make any activity engaging by adding a tooth, a fin above water, and toothy grin.

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