Freshwater Fish

We are surrounded by an abundance of rivers and lakes in our area. This 15 Minute Circle Time helps children learn more about the fish that live in them.

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Attention Getter: Gone Fishing!

This basket is filled with local fish from our area and a magnetic fishing pole.

Tell the children that you really want to go fishing. Set out the river from Beaver Day and the beaver dam and the pond. Say, “Oh I see a river and a pond, this looks like a great place to fish.”

Have some pictures of fish found in local streams and rivers. Pull out a fishing pole and tell the children you are going to go fishing. As you or a child catches each fish talk about what kind it is and where you can go fishing to catch it.

At the bottom of the basket have the stuffed trout if available or a larger picture of one if not. Be very surprised at that big trout which will lead into the discussion of the life cycle of trout.

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Activity 1: Life Cycle of Trout

Introduce the life cycle of a trout or any fish that is most familiar to your group. Have arrows drawn on the board so you can just add the pictures as you talk about each stage.

Hold up the picture with the eggs in the gravel. Tell the children that a female trout lays her eggs in the gravels of a freshwater lake or stream. Hang that picture on the board.

Next tell them baby trout hatch before they’re ready to swim. These tiny trout, called alevins, live on the yolk from their egg sacs. Then hang the picture of alevins on the board.

Then tell them young trout, called fry, use up the food in their egg sacs and swim around in the lake or stream where they were born. Hang the picture of the fry one the board.

When you show the last picture of a growing fish, describe how the fry will grow into a full sized trout over the next few years. They will eat mostly insects and worms. They will get the spots, stripes and brilliant colors of an adult trout. Hang the last picture of an adult trout on the board to complete the life cycle.

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Book: Trout Are Made of Trees

Read Trout are Made of Trees and discuss the life cycle and ecosystem of nature.

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Activity 2: Parts of a Fish

One option for this discussion is to use a real fish. We just sent a note home asking if anyone would be able to catch a trout for our lesson. We had several happy fishers bring us some real ones.. This is a basic picture of a fish and its body parts. As you can see not all parts were labeled when this picture was taken.

Draw a big picture of a fish on butcher paper. Make labels on index cards that say: fin, scales, tail, gills, eye, head, and mouth. Talk about the parts of a fish. Let the children put the labels on the big fish as you talk.

· Eyes: The eyes of a fish are always open, they have no eyelids

· Mouth: the mouth is used to catch food. Trout have teeth on the top of their mouth. That is how you can tell the difference between a trout and a salmon.

· Scales: The body of a fish is protected by a thin, but hard coating of overlapping scales and a coating of slime.

· Gills: Fish use their gills to breath. They suck in water through their mouth and breathe out through their gills.

· Tail: the tail swings from side to side to move left, right, and forward in the water.

.Fins: fins are used for swimming