Salmon Resources
In Early Elementary, students are learning about the external parts of organisms, that parents and offspring engage in survival behaviors, that animals require food to survive and that it comes from plants and other animals, and that different kinds of organisms live in different environments. These concepts can be taught by coloring and labeling salmon, observing spawning salmon and diagramming how the female builds a redd for her eggs, having discussions about what salmon eat and who eats them, watching the behavior of baby salmon, and having discussions about what kind of habitats salmon live in. The following list of teacher resources include curriculum and other materials to help teach the above concepts.
- The House of Salmon lesson incorporates readings and the creation of a healthy river ecosystem model to help students understand the impact of our actions on salmon and the ecosystem. (This is lesson two of the Since Time Immemorial Early Learning Curriculum.)
- The Alaska Salmon in the Classroom curriculum guide has background information about salmon and several lessons that can be modified for a younger audience. Take a look at “The Redd” and “Parts of a Salmon” in Skein 2, and “Salmon Habitat” in Skein 5.
- Seattle’s Salmon in the Schools webpage has several supplemental activities and salmon-related videos for young learners.
- The Pacific Salmon and Steelhead Coloring Book is full of information about salmon and can be read to early readers to provide background information to fuel discussion.
- How to Identify the Five Salmon Species of Alaska is a detailed infographic showing different characteristics of the five types of salmon.
- The Puget Sound Food Web poster and the A Salmon’s Story Life Cycle Coloring Book can be used to help fuel conversations about food webs.
- The Salmon Freshwater Habitat and Salmon Ocean Habitat webpages contain short, illustrated essays that provide some background information about salmon habitat.
- Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s 3rd grade curriculum “State of Salmon”.
Student-facing resources:
- Salmon Coloring Sheet
- Salmon Anatomy Worksheets
- Chinook Salmon Spawning (video)
- Redd Building 101 (video)
- What Salmon Eat and What Eats Salmon (handouts)
- “Habitat” (video)
Shellfish Resources
In early elementary, students are learning about external parts of organisms, parents and offspring engage in survival behaviors, animals require food to survive, and it comes from plants and other animals, and that various kinds of organisms live in different environments. These concepts can be taught by coloring and labeling the parts of different shellfish, role-playing shellfish and their filter feeding behavior.
Lessons that can be used to teach these concepts include:
- 13 Moons: First Foods and Resources Curriculum This is a full-year curriculum created by the Swinomish Tribal Community that focuses on food sovereignty and health. There are three lessons that incorporate clams: the Moons of Salmonberry, Salal Berry, and The Sacred Time.
- Crabs: Claws and Shells Students identify major body parts of crabs that help them survive, describe two structural and behavioral adaptations crabs use for feeding and protection, and compare pictures of three kinds of crabs and infer the feeding behaviors of each.
- Lesson Plan for One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab This lesson and the book only tangentially explore crabs and snails, but it's a good math lesson for young learners.
- From Dirty to Clean in 15 This lab demonstrates to kindergarten students how filtering works.
- Oysters: The Tale of Two Shells This is a hands-on exploration of the function of a shell for first grade students.
- A Perfect Home Second grade students explore the ecosystem function of oyster reefs, then design and refine their own reef model.
- Olly the Oyster Cleans the Bay Lesson Plans Students create simple (and inaccurate) models of oysters, then observe a demonstration of filtering.
Student-facing resources include: