Bubbling Fish

Thought I'd share this activity we did today.  The original idea came from
http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/my_montessori_journey/2008/10/page/2/ and looked like this. 

 Her photo is much more clear and organized then mine, since I didn't actually take a picture of the completed activity...only of the children doing it.  Sorry!  By the way, after "going fishing" in the water for sensory...this was the 2nd most wanted activity today during our kitchen work.  :-)

I only had color fish and didn't have time to make my own number fish so I adapted the activity to meet our needs (mine and children included).  I actually have three students who really need color recognition activities, a new child who I'm informally assessing to know where she is at and another who really didn't need color recognition but we talked about the color words and the word chunks.  So, first thing they did was put the fish out on the blue blanket (the pond/ocean) above the tabs of paper (can't see it but they have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th... and they are in an ABAB pattern- yellow/green/yellow/green.)  Then we talked about where the first fish was at.  This most preschoolers can do.  Now the second question was "Where's the last fish?"  This almost always stumps them.  Note:  If a child does not have a sense of "left to right" progression when they are counting, ask only about first and last when the set is in a single row.  But most of my students have a good sense of left to right so I went ahead and gave them the challenge.  :-)  Then the children added corresponding "fishy bubbles", which were glass beads- set 1-10.  Then they put the beads back in the bowl for the next child (sense of order and respect for others) and put the fish back in their original fish bowl telling me the color name as they put it back in. 

Another side note:  next time I'll use a large blanket so that the beads don't get mixed together while those younger ones are trying to count them out.  :-)

We got our color fish (Let's Go Fishing Play Set) from www.lakeshorelearning.com

Note about color recognition/naming activities.  With Trent (not quite two), I simply name the colors as he puts them in.  Actually, yesterday he pointed to something yellow and said it quite clearly.  I'm guessing that "yellow" is going to be the general color term like 4 and E are for numbers/letters.  :-)  The three year old doesn't name all the colors correctly yet BUT...if I say the colors he'll point to them correctly.  So that's what he did.  Note:  many young children will interchange red and green. This does not necessarily mean they will be color blind.  Most time it's just development.  So no worries!  The four year old named them for me, only missing a couple.  The new five year old just named them as my goal was to see where she was at.  And my oldest five year old noticed the color words printed on the fish and we talked about how they are spelled (remembering the magnets on the fridge with the color fish) and how many word chunks were in each word.  So that should give you an idea how you can vary an activity to meet the needs of each individual child...at least in the realm of colors!

So glad for all these creative people that are willing to share their ideas.  We're all in this together...helping our children take steps forward in their development.