Summer and sharks typically get grouped together. People go to the beach over summer vacation, and well, hate to break it to you, but sharks live in the ocean.
So for June, I always like to prep my students for their summer vacations and talk about sharks and all of the positive things about how important they are to our ecosystems, among other things. That’s why I chose What if a Shark Had a Party?
We are coming up on summer vacation, which is super exciting, and even teachers want to relax just a little bit over summer!
For my second book this month, I chose What if a Shark Had a Party? by Aleksei Bitskoff and Camilla de la Bedoyere.
I was super excited to be able to blog twice this month, because ya’ll know how much I love sharks… and books! So a book about sharks is right up my alley. 🙂
Each 2-page spread asks a question like “what if a shark went to a water park?” or “what if a shark drove to school?”
I mean, realistically, man of these things would never happen. BUT it’s a great book to get kids thinking outside of the box, and it’s a great book for “what if” and problem / solution.
The biggest reason I love this book so much is that it includes real life picture of sharks and it gives them real life facts about sharks, which is amazing because you get the fiction and nonfiction!
You can grab this book here*:
At the end of the book is a 4-page Shark Gallery, showcasing many species of sharks and facts about each specie.
I like using this book at the end of the year because the kids are a little spent, and so am I… but boy do I get excited about sharks! And so do the kids! The topic of sharks really interests my students, at least enough to keep them engaged for Reading block. 😉
After reading this story and talking about different species of shark, we complete a can / have / are chart on sharks.
At the end of the book is also a “The Parts of a Shark” spread. It labels the parts of a Great White Shark and tells a little information about each part. This leads us into labeling the parts of a shark.
{Grab both graphic organizers for free here.}
This year, if we have time within our schedule (since we get out of school in early, early June), here are a few ideas I found on Pinterest that we may do: