Rainbow Fish

Rainbow Fish is a classroom favorite and perfect for teaching students the importance of sharing. If you don't have this book in your classroom, you should! We read this book on the first day of school and paired it with these fun activities.

Name Scales: 

As I read the story, I clipped scales onto each student (clothespins, cardstock, tape and aluminum foil). I pinned the shiny scales (aluminum foil) on to only one student. When we were finished reading the story, students had to find the scales with the letters to make up their names. For students that do not know the spelling, I provided notecards with the correct spelling. This activity encouraged students to learn the names of classmates, identify/match letters and recognize names. We also practiced speaking clearly and politely. 

I made this giant fish to clip all of our scales on. This represented our goals to share with one another and be kind to our classmates. I would love to be a natural at cutting out amazing creatures, but I cannot take credit. I used my projector and taped a piece of poster board on the wall. Trace it and cut it out. I know its old school, but this can save a lot of time and money!

Poem: 

I paired the name activity with this poem. (If it's yours, please leave me a message so I can give you the credit :)

Rainbow Fish, Rainbow Fish

swimming in the sea,

won't you please share a scale with me? 

We read this several times to ask our student with the shiny scales to share with her friends. I also made all of the shiny scales the first letter of all my students name so everyone got a shiny scale and a chance to read the poem. 

Make a Rainbow Fish:

I printed out a fish template and set out a variety of supplies (watercolors, crayons, markers, feathers, glue, glitter, etc). I gave my students a good chunk of time to decorate and make their version of the rainbow fish. I love doing art on the first day- it seems to calm everyone down (including me) and helps gets some of those jitters out (Sorry First Day Jitters- but I refuse to read you on the first day of school!)