Inside: Use these Shark Week activities to teach sel curriculum in a fun, hands-on way each July.
I can’t lie…living near the Pacific Ocean, I was never a fan of sharks.
I wanted to see dolphin fins when I was swimming, not shark fins.
Sharks have always gotten a bad rap- from Jaws to rare shark attacks- but they’ve made a comeback with the Baby Shark song, Bruce the Shark from Finding Nemo (“fish are friends, not food“), and the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.
The mysteries of the ocean have always enthralled us since it’s the last part of Earth that hasn’t been fully explored.
And so we can lean into learning with sharks and connect it to kindness with this Kind or Unkind Sorting Game, perfect as Shark Week Activities kids will love.
Why Social Emotional Learning is Important
Social Emotional Learning is a crucial part of any classroom’s lesson plans.
Related: Why We Should Teach SEL
It teaches our students problem solving skills, critical thinking skills and positive relationship skills. It builds up their Emotional Intelligence, helps bully-proof them, and research has shown that it improves their academic success.
Related: How Teachers Can Prevent Bullying
But to make social emotional learning and character education effective, we have to make it consistent, set clear expectations from our students, intentionally teach them the skills they need to be kind, and make it fun.
To do that we can use Kindness Books like these, our 60 Kindness Conversation Starters, and fun, hands-on sel curriculum like our Shark Week Kindness Kind or Unkind Sort Activity.
More Summer Kindness Activities:
To encourage even more summer kindness, you’ll love these activities:
Summer Ultimate SEL and Kindness Bundle
Shark Kindness Craft and Write
And we love using this Shark Week Kindness Kind or Unkind Sort.
What’s Included in the Shark Week Activities, Kind or Unkind Sort:
- 24 shark fins with kindness or unkindness clipart in color
- 24 shark fins with kindness or unkindness clipart in black and white
- Kind and Unkind sorting ocean in color and black and white
- Kindness worksheet to help kids show what they know and determine what is kind and what is not kind in color and black and white
- 2 writing sheets: 1 for early writers/prewriters and 1 for writers.
How to Use these Shark Week Activities:
1. Purchase and print and laminate the shark fin cards and the Kind or Not Kind Oceans.
If you print them in black and white, you can color in the cards first.
Offer kids skin color crayons so the clipart has diverse kiddos.
2. Cut apart the cards.
3. Go over the pictures on the cards to ensure children understand what the picture depicts. You can use these as discussion starters before or after the activity.
4. The students will sort the cards by kind actions or unkind actions by placing the cards near the correct ocean.
They can work in small groups in centers, independently, or as a whole group with a pocket chart.
5. To follow up the activity, students can complete the worksheet to show their understanding.
6. To connect to writing and language arts studies, draw a picture/write how they will choose to be kind. Prewriters can dictate their answers and then draw a picture.
Ready to get the Shark Week Activities Kind or Unkind Sort?
Get The Kindness Shark Week Activities Sort on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Leave a Reply