Ultimate Guide to an Awesome Shark Week

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What is it about sharks that is so alluring? Their size? Ferocity?

I’m not sure. I would prefer they stay in the ocean and I stay out of the ocean.

But my kids (and many many other people) seem to love watching sharks, learning about sharks, and just general shark stuff.

So I’ll bite (excuse my lame pun) and provide my kids with a full week of shark learning!

And I’m providing it all here for you to copy/steal/adapt for yourself!

Shark Unit Study

If you need a quick hands-on unit study that’s already put together and ready – this is the thing for you. It’s 5 STEAM projects, 2 writing activities, and a printable set. Nice and easy for a great shark unit study.

Shark Hands On Unit Study

If you’d still like more shark resources, scroll on!

 

 

shark swimming through water

Shark Week Unit Study by the Day

This is our plans for shark week (although we’re also adding in the activities from my Shark Unit). There are a ton of resources listed underneath so feel free to substitute anything on this list with something below!

I’ve also asked my kids to all pick a book to read on their own but haven’t listed that here. They’ll use their reading time to finish their own books.  But we will also be reading books every day.

Day 1

Poetry Tea Time – Shark Mad Libs and Shark Bait Soda and goldfish
Book – Shark Lady
Experiment – How Do Sharks Float?

 

Day 2

Art – How to Draw a Shark
Book – How to Survive as a Shark
Math – Measure and compare sharks (using the informational bookmarks to determine length)

 

Day 3

Book – Wild Kratts – Wild Sea Creatures
Extra Vide0 – Wild Kratts Shark-tastic. (My kids love Wild Kratts so it was a given that we would watch this)
Writing –  We will be doing the shark project in my unit study, but we may also use the shark fact sheet from this Shark Journal

 

Day 4

Game – Shark Life Cycle Game
Book – Hark a Shark
LEGO – Make Shark LEGOs

Day 5

Movie – Finding Nemo
Movie Snacks – Shark Jell-O Cups and Shark Bait Popcorn
Book – Encyclopedia Prehistorica Sharks

 

Shark Books

There are so so many great shark books that I’ve had to split them up into a few categories – novels, non-fiction, biography, early readers, and picture books.

Finding great books to go with unit studies isn’t always easy. But there are a lot of great options for shark books so you shouldn’t have any problems!

Visit your local library to find as much as possible.

 

Shark Novels

Non-Fiction Shark Books

Biography

Shark Early Readers

Shark Picture Books

 

Shark Experiments

My kids thrive on hands-on activities so we are always finding new activities to go with our unit studies. Of course, there is nothing like a great hands-on activity to get kids really engaged in a study.

 

Shark Games

We are getting really big into gameschooling so  I had to include a few games.

I think playing games with your kids is one of the best ways we can teach things like good sportsmanship, losing/wining with integrity, and how to be a team player. There are so many lessons to be learned from games.

So I feel incredibly lucky that we can involve games into our every day life as include them as part of school!

There are some games that you can print and play and links for a few that you purchase. They all look like great games!

Shark Games to Print

 

Shark Games to Purchase

 

Shark Writing

My kids are not big fans of writing. So incorporating writing into a fun unit study is something I often try to do. It’s a way to get them writing without the groans and sighs.

Shark Math

Math is another subject I try to sneak in with unit studies. But I like to include math puzzles more than just math. I call it sneaky math.

It’s fun to say things like ‘I wonder what the biggest shark is’ and ‘I wonder what the smallest shark is’ and then watch them naturally try to work out the difference.

They often don’t even realize they’re doing math.

 

Sensory Activities with Sharks

Even though my kids are getting older, they still love sensory time. There is something comforting about playing with slime or watching a sensory bottle with it’s mesmerizing movement.

 

Shark Arts and Crafts

I still have some crafty kids at home and there are some amazing crafts on Pintereste. I picked a few of my favorites to share here. I just wish we could do all of these for shark week (we might try…).

 

Food for Little Sharks (humans…)

I love completing a theme with some fun food. So I just had to include a few of these fun finds.

I especially love adding themed food to a movie day. How much fun would it be to eat shark bait while watching Finding Nemo? (hopefully a LOT of fun)

 

Shark Stuff to Watch

My kids will never turn down the opportunity to watch a movie or anything on Netflix. Especially if I refer to it as school time.

These movies aren’t educational and most don’t even show anything realistic about sharks. But they’re fun and entertaining!

Movies

Youtube/Netflix

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