Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Unlikely Fish Books

It's been a while since I did a book post, so I thought I'd share some favorite fish stories we've been reading...but they're not what you'd think.  In fact...most people probably wouldn't even call them fish stories, but they're two of Firecracker's recent favorites.

Having exhausted all of the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary, we've moved on to the Henry Huggins series also by Beverly Cleary (as read-aloud books).  I wasn't sure how she'd like them...but it turns out she thinks they're pretty much as good as Ramona.  In the climax of Henry and Ribsy, Henry manages to catch a huge salmon with his bare hands by holding onto his gills.  It's pretty exciting...REALLY.  Firecracker was fascinated, but had no idea what gills were and kept asking about them.

So the next time I was at the grocery store I asked the butcher to wrap up just one tilapia for me...since they're pretty much the cheapest fish at the store and they are sold whole.  I planned to do the activity with the kids myself...really I did.  But Hubby was home and it just seemed more like a Father-Kid bonding experience.


So they looked at it together.

And Hubby showed the kids the different parts...

...especially the gills...

...and Firecracker was fascinated by the eyes, which of course meant she wanted to poke them with her finger.

My original plan, once we were done with the fish, was to do this fun looking project from That Artist Woman for making Fish Prints from Tilapia.  However, Firecracker REALLY wanted to scale and cook the fish.  Why you ask?  Because they talk about scaling fish in Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower by Peggy Parish (a favorite of Firecracker's).  So they had fun scaling the fish together. 

Then Hubby cooked it for the kids...and they wouldn't eat it.  But now Firecracker knows what gills are.

6 comments:

  1. I would have left that project for the hubs, too! I can catch fish and eat fish, but I cannot clean fish!! I'm definitely going to check out Henry and Ribsy for W, thanks for the recommendation!

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  2. What a fun activity! I am not a fish person -- catching, eating, cooking -- so I would have very intentionally left this to my husband. And he would have loved it. :)

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  3. I love the way you connected these 2 books with fish...and let the kids handle and poke a real fish, slimy scales and all. Good Mom!

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  4. I love the hands on exploration. I don't think JDaniel would want to eat fish he had explored either. I love your tie ins!

    Thanks for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.

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  5. That is so great! Your kids are more brave than I am! ha ha... I love it!

    Thanks for sharing at For the Kids Friday at SunScholars.blogspot.com. Hope to have you back again for our next party later this week!

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