Salmon Pin Pushing

This is a really simple pin pushing but with the grey fish on one side and the red, spawning salmon on the other it really does add to the salmon unit!  This was one of our sound of the week projects for this week since we started with 's'.

Making a Salmon Redd

This idea came from an old write up I found when I borrowed a friends Salmon Unit binder!  We've been discussing the salmon's lifecycle and their amazing journey back from the ocean when it's time for them to spawn.  Their Redd is the nest the female makes to lay her eggs in from swishing her tail in the rocks of the riverbed!   

On the tray are 3 different colors of paper representing the rocks, gravel, and dirt in the river bed, a glue stick, a small bowl of red paint, a pencil with tape around the end to dab in the paint, a damp sponge to wipe off the pencil with, and a square of blue paper representing the creek.   

A salmon Redd!  They've really enjoyed this hands on activity and it helped envision what this salmon redd looks like!

Fishing for Salmon

We are doing a lifecycle of the salmon unit this October.  Salmon are native to where we live so there's lots of opportunity to see them in action at this time of year both at the fish hatchery's and in local rivers!  This is one of the works I'll introduce on the first day we talk about salmon. This idea came from my friend who I interned under!

It's just a simple plastic storage container lined with blue felt, rocks from the playground, and I sprinkled some flat marbles all around to represent salmon eggs.

 I tied a piece of hemp string to a wooden dowel (can be bought at craft stores) and hot glued magnets to the end of it.  The fish are printed off on cardstock (from google images) and I punched a hole around their mouths with a tiny hole punch and put metal jump rings (for jewelry) through them.

They can just gently move the fishing pole back and forth and the catch the salmon!  There are 3 different sizes.

Here's a cute song to sing while doing it.

(Sung To: Row, Row, Row your boat)

Submitted byJenni

Catch, catch, catch a fish, 

Hook it on your line. 

Reel it, reel it, reel it, 

This one will be mine.