Materials
Flashlight with fresh batteries
Darkened room
Instructions
1. During a whale or sea life unit, make a life-sized whale to display in the classroom or in the hallway.2. Read books about whales to the children and show them photographs of real whales.3. Ask the children to decide collaboratively which whale they would like to create.4. Measure how long the actual whale would be using a tape measure. (If the children choose an extremely large whale, it might be better to construct it outdoors.)5. Roll out enough butcher paper to equal the length of the whale.6. Draw the whale onto the paper. Be sure to include an eye, mouth, blowhole, fins, and other specific markings. Cut it out.7. Encourage the children to color or paint the whale the actual color it would be in the wild.8. Carefully punch out holes along the top edges of the whale. Place hole reinforcers on both sides of the holes to provide sturdiness for hanging.9. Tie fishing line or yarn through the holes. Secure paper clips to the other ends of the line to mount it from ceiling tiles. (Or, use punch pins to attach it to a wall.)10. Help the children carry the whale to where you will display it.More to doField Trips: Visit a local marine park, aquarium, or museum to find out additional whale facts and/or actually see a whale. Take plenty of photos for the children to reference later.Math: Make a graph comparing the lengths of several different types of whales.Outdoors: Have a whale spout splash day. Ask the children to dress in wet play clothing and bring in squirt toys or bottles from home. Or, purchase enough squirt toys for several children to use at one time. Explain to the children that it is air that makes the water squirt out of the bottle. Then explain that when a whale exhales, it doesn't squirt water out of its blowhole. Instead, it is the water on the whale's body and the warmth of the whale's breath that makes the spray.
