Lots of Ideas for a Salmon Unit

Inside: Learning about salmon. Lots of activities for a primary classroom.

Lots of Ideas for a Salmon Unit

We’ve been learning LOTS about salmon AND we completed these fabulous salmon art projects (pictures below).

We Read Two Great Salmon Books:

The first book is called Salmon Forest by David Suzuki and Sarah Ellis. In this beautiful story, set in the Pacific rain forest, a little girl learns about the strong and important connection between the salmon and the forest.

Then we read Salmon Creek, by Annette LeBox and Karen Reczuch. In this book the salmon life cycle is explained through the voice and eyes of Sumi, a coho salmon.

Salmon Creek is, in my opinion, probably the most gorgeous and poetic book you’ll find for explaining the mysterious lives of salmon.

Salmon Video

We watched this fabulous video to learn more about the salmon life cycle:

Salmon Life Cycle Wheels:

If you’d like to make your own, they’re super simple. All I did was trace a circle, divide it into six equal sections, one for each stage of a salmon’s life: 1) eggs,  2) alevin,  3) fry,  4) parr,  5) smolt and adult, and 6) spawning adult.  I combined smolt and adult so that we could fit the cycle into six sections.

After the kids illustrated each stage, they coloured a salmon picture on another circle (minus a piece for viewing) and then we attached the paper with those brads that let you spin the paper around. I can never remember the proper name for those!

Salmon Art

I always like to include some artwork with any unit we’re working on, so I had the kids paint these beautiful native salmon:

As you can see from the photos, they’re pretty easy to do.

1. Paint the background stripes in 3 different colours (the brighter the better). We used tempera paints.
2. Colour and cut out a native salmon.
3. When the paper is dry, glue on the salmon.

If you’d like to try this, then CLICK HERE for a copy of the salmon template.  Be sure to colour the areas with a “B” black, the circle near the tail red, and all the rest is left white. It looks best coloured with felt pens, rather than crayons.

Salmon Stream Mural

We also made this mural after a field trip to a local salmon spawning stream:

I hope you enjoyed this peek into our salmon unit.