Under the Sea--Crabs

Yesterday we continued our Under the Sea theme with a study of crabs, beginning with reading Crab by Lloyd G. Douglas.

This very short and simple book is perfect for preschoolers.  The text is simple enough that I would recommend it for kindergartners or 1st graders who are learning to read, as well.  We learned that most crabs live in water, but that some live on land near water, that crabs have 10 legs, and they use their claws to protect themselves and to eat.

We also learned that crabs walk sideways.  So the kids spent a little time walking like crabs, and we decided that what most people call a crab walk is not how crabs walk at all!  We also discovered that crab walking on my new mommy's day gift* is kind of...difficult...

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This is not how crabs really walk!

It was sure fun to try out different crab walk methods, though!

Next, the kids made crabs using the crab template found here.  We used small paper plates instead of the circle from the template, and googly eyes instead of the template eyes, and Roger decided to use pipe cleaners for legs rather than the template legs (so, yes, what I'm telling you is, all Roger used from the template was the claws--why did we even bother with the template?  Not sure).

The kids chose to color their crabs with markers rather than paint. I would highly suggest, if you do this yourself, to not give an option--just have them paint. The kids' hands got very tired with all that coloring, and by the time they got to the body, they were ready to be done and did a less than thorough job. Or you could print the template on red or orange paper and have your kids decorate with markers or sequins or whatever.

We finished our study of crabs by reading Clumsy Crab by Ruth Galloway. This is the story of Nipper the crab who hates his claws because they are always in the way. Until one day, when Nipper's claws save the day!

True story: after all of our fun and crabby exploration yesterday, MC was instructed to crab walk at karate last night...I almost bust out laughing, because that's not how crabs walk :)

(but I guess you had to be there...)

*Pic of my new mommy's day gift coming soon...