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Welcome to our “Awesome & Amazing Sharks Week” – an at home week filled with days of relaxed learning and fun activities all themed to the oh-so-cool, sometimes scary, always awesome sharks!!!
Like most of our at home camp weeks, we kicked off the week by easing into the topic. We started off with setting up the camp area with some ocean backdrops as well as hanging up some blue paper to create our own shark murals. And, like all days, we added in some interesting books and some writing / storytelling prompts to keep them learning! Read on to check out the fun!
DECORATE THE CAMP AREA
Decorating the ‘Camp Area’ or the room / area of your house where you’ll have most of your activities is a great way to get the kids excited about the theme of the week! If they’re incredibly crafty and creative, having some extra and opened-ended crafts would be great to keep them engaged. Otherwise, a prepared activity would work well!
Similar to our very first (and brief) intro to sharks in our Ocean Camp Shark Day, we set up some blue tissue paper and added some shark outlines. Throughout the week, we added more cutouts of sharks as we colored a few each day! We also brought out a few of other Ocean Backdrops and Shark Figurines.
We set up a shark sensory bin with some water beads and mini figurines. Sensory bins are always a fun activity at any age – just be sure to watch any little ones if they’re playing with water beads!
WEEKLONG PROJECT
At the start of the week, we also introduce a weeklong project – this is great for reinforcing concepts learned throughout the day as well as allowing them to build time and project management skills.
For our weeklong project, we gave them a ‘Field Journal’ to draw and add sharks from each day.
We also had them set up some shark puppets using our cutouts as well as some Shark Puppet Craft Kits. It was a great way to get them creating their own shark story lines!
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). There are TONS of cool sharks out there and one short video can’t possibly list them all, but here are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- 15 Most Rare Shark Species Hidden in The Ocean by Amerikano (22m)
- 7 of the Strangest Sharks on Earth by SciShow (10m)
FOOD CRAFTS & SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
For our snack of the day, we used the shark from the Sea Creatures Cookie Cutter to make some shark sandwiches 🙂
READING
It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned! These are a few we picked from for the day:
- The Ultimate Book of Sharks (National Geographic Kids) by Brian Skerry
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: SHARKS, FISH
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- What is your favorite type of shark? What do you love the most about it?
- Write a short (fictional) story about a scientist who discovered a new shark species. How would the discovery have been made? What does the new shark look like?
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home learning fun post! If you enjoyed this read, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check some other days in our Awesome & Amazing Sharks Week, as well as our Shark Day in our Ocean Camp Week, Megalodon Day in our Stunning Prehistoric Sea Creatures Week, Ocean Learning Fun Days, and our other DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
