Wednesday 8 October 2014

Jonah's Temporary Fish Home

So my first class was Jonah and the fish. Great story. It's a classic. It's entertaining and not terribly frightening for the kids ( 3-4 yr olds) who are learning about their on little stomachs.

For the class I did a little comic book which I will post up here soon. I love it because the kids didn't all have to look at my book I was holding up, they each got their own copy to keep and could learn how to read by learning how to follow pictures in order, left to right.



Here's our craft:

Inspired by these on Pinterest:

One.
Ocean - blue whale craft made from biodegradable seedling planters

What I like about this one which I forgot to do with my kids was have the little pipe cleaners spurting out the top.

Two.
Made these with my Preschool Sunday School Class along with their Jonah lesson... the kids LOVED it! We also thumb print painted a scene of the sea and a ship & placed a small pic of Jonah on the end of a popsicle stick & the kids re-enacted Jonah being thrown out of the ship and the fish swallowing him ;)

Except replace the little fish with Jonah and a less scarier fish.

Three.
A plastic bag full of blue dish soap makes it seem like we are looking at Jonah through water in the belly of the fish.

And Four.
Jonah Sunday school lesson idea.  All you need is a little tent.  The kids loved it.

I loved these ideas. All colourful, all easy/simple, all cheap, all made out of things you probably already have. And super interactive which the kids love!

I decided:

It was mostly inspired by the first and third option.

I gave my kids plastic cups. I wanted to use paper but the plastic actually worked better as you can see inside. But make sure you have the right markers so they can decorate their cup, unlike my poor kids (sorry!).


Here's what I whipped out when I was testing it. I let the kids draw their own eyes and gills which was great because I got to teach them what gills were and how fish breathe underwater! A little biology lesson built in.

Amos did some pretty funky eyes!
And Jonah was upside down...He refused to be mainstream.
Then they attached a tail made out of paper, which they decorated. And a Jonah (I'll upload his template with the comic book) as well which they coloured in.

We attached the tail to the behind (again another biology lesson because one kid stuck it on as a monobrow) and then stuck little Jonah inside the cup so you could see him 'inside the fish!'

Quick and easy (which is good because I take aaagess reading the story). Not much hassle! Plus one kid said I was the best teacher after doing this craft. Not to brag or anything....

Can't wait for more!

Sam's end product. What a stunner!