July 14 was Shark Awareness Day so we had a great time celebrating our toothy ocean friends today. I had actually planned to do it last week, but I ended up catching COVID from my daughter and having to take an unexpected two weeks off of work. Thankfully, my coworkers stepped in to cover for me while I was out.

Here’s what we did:

Books:

I’m a Shark by Bob Shea

This is one of my favorite books to read aloud. A brave shark brags about how he’s not not afraid of anything: dinosaurs, bears, giant squid, even the dark. But he seems a little bit nervous about spiders. A parent who also teaches preschool said this was one of her favorite books too.

Smiley Shark by Ruth Galloway

Very cute story about a friendly shark who just wants to play, but all of the fish swim away from him in fear. When they all get caught in a fisherman’s net, Smiley Shark saves the day by scaring the fisherman with his big smile.

The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist and Julia Gorton

Cute adaptation of The Three Little Pigs, about three fish who set out to build their own homes in the ocean. Both the seaweed and sand houses get destroyed by a big shark, but when he tries to chomp down the third fish’s home in a wooden ship, he knocks out all of his teeth.

Songs:

Slippery Fish

We did this one with puppets (a fish, an octopus, a shark, and a whale). Here’s a video by Silvia Sanchez with the tune.

Slippery Fish, Slippery Fish,
Swimming in the water.
Slippery Fish, Slippery Fish,
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

She was eaten by an octopus, octopus,
Swimming in the water.
Octopus, Octopus,
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

He was eaten by a great white shark,
Great white shark,
Swimming in the water,
Great white shark, Great white shark.
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

She was eaten by a humongous whale,
Humongous whale,
Swimming in the water,
Humongous whale,
Humongous whale,
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!
BURP!! Pardon me!

1,2,3,4,5

This is an old standby of mine, except I changed the words from a fish to a shark, which made it a lot more exciting.

1,2,3,4,5,

I caught a shark alive!

I let him go,

And he bit my toe…Ouch!

1,2,3,4,5!

The Sharks in the Ocean

I found this ocean-themed version of The Wheels on the Bus on empoweredparents.co. I asked the kids for suggestions of other animals.

[C]The sharks in the ocean go chomp, chomp, chomp,

[G7]Chomp, chomp, chomp, [C] chomp, chomp, chomp.

The sharks in the ocean go chomp, chomp, chomp,

[G7]All day [C] long.

The crabs in the ocean go click, click, click…

The turtles in the ocean go snap, snap, snap…

The fish in the ocean go gulp, gulp, gulp…

The whales in the ocean go spout, spout, spout…\

Baby Shark

Of course, we had to end with the PinkFong version of Baby Shark!

C] Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo

[F] Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo

[Am] Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo

[G] Baby shark!

Mommy shark…

Daddy shark…

Grandma Shark…

Grandpa Shark…

Let’s go hunt!…

Run Away…

Safe at last…

That’s the end…

Stay & Play: Shark Scene

I found this fun craft on messylittlemonster.com. I had printed and cut out shark pictures ahead of time, along with strips of colored tissue paper to make seaweed. For the stay & play, I put out pieces of blue paper, glue sticks, the shark pictures, the tissue paper, and some play sand (the sand was everyone’s favorite part, but they liked the sharks too).

What are your favorite books about sharks? Please share them in the comments below.