Wyoming — The challenge: a pirate friend of King Triton needed a hard-working crew of sea creatures to repair his damaged ship.
Oriole Park Elementary first-graders assembled the team based on animals’ characteristics: the hard-shelled turtle can use its back like a hammer; the whale can use its sheer size and strength to lend a fin; the seahorse can fit into small places that need attention; the octopus can use its agile tentacles and strong suction cups.
“Their suckers are so strong they are almost like super glue!” exclaimed one first-grader about octopuses.
Students brainstormed which sea creatures would be helpful and why, looking to books about sea animals for their information.
The challenge came from a video created by Oriole Park staff members in which King Triton, played by paraprofessional Jake McKenney and his pirate friend, played by teacher Nathan Johnson, give students a new reading task each week during National Reading Month.
The next challenge: After all that work on the imaginary ship, the animals are very hungry and the class needs to feed them. What do they need to eat?
McKenney reminded the group about what they’ve learned about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores before setting them off to find information about sea creatures’ diets.
“Do you think they all eat the same thing?” McKenney asked the class. “Where can we find the answer to this question?”
Students rattled answers before beginning their research: the classroom library; the online library, Epic; and inside books in the table of contents.
Under the Sea
Oriole Park kindergarten through fifth-grade students are spending the month immersed in the study of the sea and the many living things that live in it. The school’s “March is Reading Month” theme is “Dive into Reading,” and the building has been transformed into an underwater seascape: billowing waves made of fabric cover the ceiling, green seaweed hangs on the walls, glittery jellyfish swim overhead and fish peek out from every corner.
Students are learning lots of facts about sea life through reading.
“Whales can have one or two blowholes,” said Novah Huff, about what she’s learned.
The end-of-the-year goal in first grade is to read and comprehend first-grade level text, said Buys-McKenney. That includes the self-directed exploration of books, such as finding chapters about what sea animals eat.
Stella Lapp already knows her stuff:
“Parrot fish eat coral,” she said.
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