Shark Week

In America, there is a very popular themed week on the television station Animal Planet, that is famously known as "Shark Week." Growing up in Hawaii and California, and never living more than a ten minute drive from the beach, I, of course, had to indulge in my biggest fear of the ocean, and watch the numerous shows they had each year on the giant beasts that live below the surface.

As Shooting Star began an Under the Sea theme for the month of May, I thought, what better way to start it off than with a shark week of our own? Also, with a class of twelve kids, and eight of them being four year old boys, I knew they would love looking at pictures of sharks, discussing sharks and doing shark themed crafts. The most important thing I've learned teaching English to people, especially small children, is that you have to keep them interested by making it fun. When the topic is of interest to them, they pick it up naturally and want to keep using the vocabulary I give them.

All of the kids in Shooting Star knew what a shark was by it's English name, so we proceeded to talk about where they live, what they eat, what they look like, and how they're different from other animals in the ocean, as well as the differences between people and sharks.

I would ask the kids where sharks live, and then turn the question around and ask them where they live, and then to reinforce the idea of living as residing in a location, I asked them where my Mom and Dad lived and where characters from their favorite movies lived.

We discussed a shark's diet and then compared it to our own, and found the similarity that we both like to eat fish. :)

When we discussed a shark's appearance, we mainly focused on their teeth and how different they are then our own. I showed them various images of sharks' teeth, we took turns checking our friends' mouths for sharp teeth, and then, to make it extra silly for them, I found a few pictures of sharks with human teeth photoshopped in.

The craft for shark week was making paper plate sharks and getting started on the ocean mural.  The kids did great with following directions in a multistep project that mixed different forms of media. As always, I was really proud of their ability to not only follow many directions in English, but also engage in conversation with me about what we're learning.