Flannel Friday: All the Fish…

Back this Friday with another fun ocean-themed flannel! This one works with a multitude of tunes, including:

All the fish are swimming in the water,
Swimming in the water, swimming in the water.
All the fish are swimming in the water.
Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble… SPLASH!

CREDIT: KCLS

I’ve also seen versions that end with a clap and a POP, which kids love!

For ocean storytime, I like to add verses with various ocean creatures: crabs crawling, starfish waving, jellyfish wiggling, turtles snapping, sharks chomping… you get the idea!

And of course, the classic “Wheels on the Bus” can be adapted:

The waves in the sea go up and down, up and down, up and down.
The waves in the sea go up and down all day long!

Repeat: sharks go chomp, fish swim round, crabs crawl back and forth, etc.

I used to borrow a teammate’s flannel:

Flannelboard: Various Felt Sea Creatures

Then, when I moved libraries and needed to make my own, I was storytiming with HUGE groups (oftentimes with more than 100 people in the room) and a not so big flannelboard easel. I decided to make a screen flannel instead using clip art from Daily Art Hub:

Screenshot: Ocean Scene with Various Sea Creatures

I also like to use these ocean creatures with a twist on the “Fishies in the Sea” song:

There are so many things in the deep blue sea!
Look and tell me what you see.

This open-ended prompt leads to great conversation! And of course, the wide variety of ocean creatures provides excellent opportunity for early math talk, such as:

• How are these ocean creatures the same?
• How are they different?
• Which one is the biggest?
• What kind of big is it? (e.g. long or wide)
• Which one is the smallest?
• How can you tell?

You can also make up a story with the audience’s help!

“I wonder why the orange seahorse is all by itself, and the other three seahorses are over here? Once upon a time, there was a lonely seahorse…”

Or…

“I wonder where the sea turtle is going? Once upon a time, there was a sea turtle going to…”

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