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Five Little Pumpkins

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Fish Eyes
by Lois Ehlert
Fish Eyes is a counting story about a small fish who explains what he would see if he become a beautiful fish who flipped down rivers and splashed in the sea. 
Resources for Fish Eyes:
Full Book Review (English)
Full Book Review (Spanish)
Brief Book Review (English)
Brief Book Review (Spanish)
Activities for Fish Eyes:
Plus 1 Brown Fish Makes… (English)
Game Pieces

Can you add your way through the ocean with an adventurous little fish? 

       

Math Connections: 

          Counting                  Adding

          Shapes                    Patterns

          Comparisons           Sorting

Activities To Do Together: 

  • Practice counting the fish in the story. 

  • Sort the fish in the story. Find fish that are alike and fish that are different.

  • Identify the shapes that make up the fish. Look for circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles. Count the circles and triangles on a page of the book. 

  • Talk about the patterns that exist in the book, both the patterns on the fish and the pattern of adding one fish. 

  • Ask your child how many fish they think will be on the next page of the story. Ask them to explain why.

  • Show your child how the addition in the book looks when written down. For example, “5 spotted fish plus me makes 6” could be written as 5 + 1 = 6 or as 6 = 5 + 1. Talk about how the = sign means that the numbers on both sides of the equal sign are worth the same amount. 

Extension Questions:

  1. How are the fish in this book alike? How are they different?

  2. Which is your favorite fish in the book? How do you think the author made the fish? What does it look like? What shapes do you see in your favorite fish? 

  3. Find a fish with spots in the book. Count the spots. How many are there? How many spots would the fish have if it had one more spot? 

  4. Six fantailed fish plus one small fish equals seven fish. Four spotted fish plus three striped fish also equal seven fish. What other ways can you think of to add fish to make a total of seven fish?

  5. Find a page with lots of circles. What do the circles represent?

Vocabulary for Building Math Concepts:  

add, eight, five, four, nine, one, plus, seven, six, ten, three, through, two

Please check out the Book Guide for Fish Eyes for more!

Online External Resources for Fish Eyes:

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