STEAM Storytime with Swimmy!

This week we are continuing our summer STEAM storytime series with the classic book, Swimmy.

STEAM Storytime are STEAM challenges inspired by your favorite picture books. STEAM is the combination of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. Integrating STEAM based play is an easy and innovative way to enrich children’s learning.

STEAM Challenge: Can you build a big fish inspired by “Swimmy”?

Objective: Use the materials to build a big fish inspired by the book, “Swimmy.”

Materials:

• “Swimmy” written by Leo Lionni
• Loose Parts (ex: glass beads, small rocks, or even goldfish crackers)
• Big Fish Printable (optional)

Teaching Strategy:

Read the book, “Swimmy”.  Discuss how Swimmy and the small red fishes worked together to hide from the big fish.

https://youtu.be/IQlepfKYtUU

Use the loose parts to build a big fish like Swimmy and the red fishes in the story. 

Younger students may wish to use an outline of a fish as a guide. 

Tell a story about your fish!

What other sea animals can you design with the loose parts?

Experiment with a variety of loose parts!

Try creating different patterns.

Or take it outside and making it a collaborative project!

Here we drew a large fish with sidewalk chalk and filled in with found nature items.

Guiding Questions:

• What would you do if you were Swimmy and trying not to be eaten?
  
• What are other ways animals disguise themselves?
  
• Why is teamwork important?

STEAM Integrations:

Science: What other ocean animals are bigger than the big fish?

Technology: Take a digital photo to record your big fish.

Engineering/Art: Design and build a big fish using loose parts.  What other ocean animals can you build?

Math: Measure how long your fish is from the mouth to tail.

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