Fishy Fun - Ocean Song Ideas for Kindergarten and 1st Grade

February 7, 2016

Fishy Fun! Ocean Songs and Games for Primary Grades

I like a good theme, I won’t lie. For the past week or so I’ve been teaching ocean songs and underwater games to kindergarten and I wanted to share some of the things that have worked really well. Since it’s kindergarten I try and keep activities pretty short but do them frequently. So, we learned a poem, repeated it a bit, and then left it alone. The next day we came back to the poem and added actions. The next day the poem became a sung poem and we sang it several times. The next day we added a little game to it and on and on. The activity and poem itself was short, but we came back and used the same activity multiple times.

So, if you see an activity below that seems like it would only take a minute or two, you’re probably right. We sang many of these ocean songs multiple times throughout the week and expanded and added every time we tried them again.

Charlie Over the Ocean

I love singing this little echo song with kiddos because it’s easy to catch on and understand and it introduces them in to low sol. We get to talk a little bit about the difference between “see” and “sea” which their teachers really appreciate since “see” is a sightword AND because they’re talking about homonyms/homophones. I also love teaching “Charlie” to my kids because it has such a great history as a game song among the African American community. This is a song that kids might be able to take home and sing with parents or aunts/uncles or grandparents. Those family members might remember playing the game out on the playground or singing this song when THEY were in school.

The game is really simple and fun and works a lot like “duck, duck, goose.” The leader of the song sings “Call & Response” style as they walk around the circle. When they get to the lyric “can’t catch me” they tap the closest person and then run! If the tapped kid can’t catch the singer then they become the new singer.

I especially love this game procedure because it gives power to the leader of the song. One student sings out the main melody as a solo and the group echoes them as they walk around the perimeter. Kids like the game because it puts them in charge and lets them choose who runs behind them. I like it because It’s easy for me to listen and assess as they play the game. Since the solo singing is tied to the game, they are more likely to get up and walk around and do the singing. If they’re super shy I’ll sing WITH them while they walk around, but I tell them that to get to walk around and tap someone they have to do the singing for the call and response.

Fish, Fish, Little Fish

A few years ago I came up with this little song on a whim. I needed something about fish that was simple and reinforced sol, do, and la. This little song developed and quickly became a fun little circle game with kiddos. Now it’s a favorite with my kinders and we sing and try it out on “Shark Week” or any time when we sing ocean songs.

I did a LIVE Facebook Video about how I teach this song. See it here!

Fish Fish Little Fish Song - Sheet Music Notated in F but I usually sing in D.

We start by echo singing the song phrase by phrase and then build up to the whole thing. Usually the first day I’ll just sing and teach the song without the visual that I created. It’s just simpler to focus on the song alone. We learn the song in a circle and then I teach them a little game. We talk about the lyrics of the song and I ask them who they think is the person singing. Eventually they realize that it’s the SHARK singing the song and he is talking about eating the little fish. They think that’s quite fun. We might end there for the day or..

Then I grab out my little fish finger puppets (look below for information about where to get these little guys). We talk about how there are several colors and that you “Get what you get, so don’t be upset.” Sidebar, I hate “Git what you git and don’t throw a fit,” because 1) “git” isn’t a word and 2) Get and fit don’t actually rhyme. I’ve always hated it. It wasn’t until I took Orff Level I and my brilliant pedagogy teacher, Dena Byers, shared the gem “Get what you get, so don’t be upset,” that I had a replacement.

Anyway, back to the finger puppets! So I hand them out to each kid and they get to sing the song to their little puppet. We get to pretend to chomp them at the end of the song but don’t actually put them in our mouths (you really have to remind of this… sigh, the joys of kindergarten). Then we might leave the song for a while and do some vocal exploration as the fish goes up and down or we might go back and sing “Charlie Over the Ocean” with our little fish. Or depending on time and the situation we might go on to the circle game…

Kids sit in the circle while I put on my shark hat and grab my guitar. I play along and walk around as we sing (with a D and A7 chord pattern). When we get to the lyrics “Get into my mouth” I add a “CHOMP” sound at the very end. We talk about how sharks sometimes circle the food they want to eat. So we sing again and I walk around with my guitar throughout the song. On the “chomp/sharkbite” at the end I lean over and “pretend to bite” right above one student’s head. Then they stand up and get to be the shark.

We sing again and this time at the end of the song they lean over and “chomp” a new kid. Then the new kid stands up and they get to be the one kid to bite. We do this until everyone is in one big line and the very last kid to stand up either gets to “bite” me or they get to be the special lights person or door person or have some other special job since they didn’t get to “bite” a kid like all the rest of the class. There was a LOT of giggling going on during the shark bites. See below for proof.

Two Children "chomping" on one another like sharks.

The next day we might try it out with the visual set that I made. In the set there’s a section where kids get to play around and learn the beat/rhythm with beat charts. There’s also a way for kids to identify which solfege syllables are involved (and discover the syllable la). There’s also an Orff arrangement that’s super easy for Bass xylos and Glockenspiels. There’s also a little place for game for kids to improv. with the rhythm. I generally just choose one or two of those activities and go with it. There’s too much included in the set to do it ALL at once so we just use it and come back to it again later for some of the harder things. In fact, I usually teach the song in kinder and come back in 1st or 2nd for the Orff arrangement. If you’re interested in the visuals set with lots of extras included you can find it here.

1 2 3 4 5, Once I caught a Fish Alive

Click to enlarge.

Here’s another fun and easy little song to teach with kiddos. There are an infinite number of possibilities and endings to this song, which can be really fun! You teach the song a phrase at a time and start out with a little fish. You sing the first part of the song together and talk about the fish that you caught. Then it gets interesting because you can teach the next part as a true “call and response” with the kids. You ask why they let the fish go and they tell you that it bit their finger. The tricky part is the last phrase where you talk about how he bit the finger on the right. Trying to get kids to remember right and left can be a nightmare… so you can take the time to make sure they really do get their right finger or you can just let them put up one of their pinky fingers and call it good.

Once you’ve got the basic song learned you can come back to it anytime and change out the animal that you catch. One time it can be a fish and the next it can be a crab or an eel or a shark or an octopus. You can let kids decide what animal you want or you can choose fun things. I bought some amazing clip art a few years ago, printed it out on cardstock and laminated it.

When we do this song in my class, I let kids come up and pick an animal out of the folder and then we sing a verse incorporating whatever they chose. This was especially helpful when I taught at a school with a big English Language Learner population as it would help to expand their vocabulary. They build confidence as they get to stand up on their own and choose an animal from the folder. Letting them pick a pre-printed picture means they don’t have to think up an animal from their own memory (and then to translate its name in their head). You can write the name of the animal on the back of the cutout if you like and that can help kids with vocabulary as well. Here’s a link to the clip art pack I bought if you’re interested in doing the same activity!

You can use the YouTube video above if you want. I learned the song and teach the song on a Sol-Mi interval and so the melody in this video sort of messes up my kids. But it’s a fun visual and fun to talk about how it’s different than what we learned.

Everything’s better with a Puppet

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I really love using puppets with kiddos for about everything (see this blog post for more about puppets)! I mentioned above that you can get little finger puppets for the kids to use. A friend recommended these fun little rubber finger puppets to me. I bought a class set online and love them because they’re hard to break, easy to clean, and just the right size for kiddos. Here’s a link about where to find them.

Click to enlarge.

I have been wanting this awesome octopus puppet for years! I’m contemplating doing an ocean program with kinder kiddos in the late spring. This would be the perfect helper, right? I might have to bump this up on my wishlist. Click here to see all the details.

Click to enlarge.

I have a crab puppet named “Shelly” that I use to teach several of these songs. She talks to the kids about life on the bottom of the ocean and then helps to lead the songs or get kids’ attention. The puppet I use actually used to be part of an old math or reading curriculum that got replaced and tossed out. When my teacher leaders were pulling out and recycling the old books and curriculum I asked if I could keep the puppet. My “Shelly” is good for now but I definitely want to replace her with this awesome Folkmanis version.

I swear I’m not writing about Folkmanis puppets being I’m being sponsored by the company or anything. I just love their stuff! Their puppets are the most interesting/intricate, are the most durable, and are the best buy for your money. That’s why I keep talking about them here on the blog, not because I’m getting paid to do so… Now, if anyone from the Folkmanis company reads this blog post… give me a call. You outfit my classroom with Folkmanis puppets I will gladly write some sponsored blog posts all about them.

Other Fun Resources for Ocean Songs

Another fun thing that I’ll often do at the end of the week as a capstone to our unit is show the “Pines of Rome” video from the Fantasia 2000 DVD. You’ll probably remember it as the scene with the flying whales. Kids LOVE this video and then it allows us to talk about whales and do some music listening. My philosophy with videos is that if they enhance learning and expose kids to quality classical music then it’s worth it. If an administrator EVER questions me about it (and none have so far), I’d talk with them about the quality illustration that students would see and how this video expands what they know about whales and forces them think about fact vs. fiction. It also lets kids experience a piece of high quality music that we may never get to hear live. And hey, showing one 10 minute clip is FREE compared to the price of busses/tickets/going to a live performance.

About a year ago I went to a workshop that my local Orff chapter was hosting and got to see Lynn Kleiner present. She did a couple songs out of this amazing book called “Songs of the Sea” and I HAD to buy it. “Larry the Lobster” and “Sandy Sand” are now absolute staples in my room. I love to use the Sandy Sand song to introduce the egg shakers and also to get some of those little kiddo/end of the day wiggles out of my kinders. There are a bunch of songs in this book and a great accompaniment CD too. Totally worth your money.

I hope this blog post gave you some ideas to use in the future. Feel free to pin any of the images above to save for later. If you have any other fun and fishy ideas for younger grades please leave a comment below! I’m always looking for new things to add to my units and would love to know about your favorite songs!

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