Our class has been working very hard on our Internet project.  We have read many books, both fiction and non fiction to learn about whales.  We enjoyed reading Baby Beluga by Raffi and singing along with the tape.  We especially enjoyed reading The True Story of Humphrey the Lost Whale by Wendy Tokuda and Richard Hall.  Many of the children commented on how the book sounded so much like a fiction book.  The beautiful illustrations helped the book appear more like a fiction book.  When we were done reading about Humphrey, we looked at a map to find the places in the story.  We have used our work on Humphrey to learn about other places on the map.  We are learning a lot about the different states in our country.

One of our projects was to write a poem about whales after we read Margaret Wise Brown's The Important Book. We were able to put a lot of the information that we learned about whales into our poem.

 

The Important Poem
by Mrs. Lubin's Class

The important thing about whales is whales are mammals.  It is true that there are 75 kinds of whales.  His thick layer of fat called blubber keeps him warm.  A baby whale is called a calf.  Whales swim by moving their tails up and down and some whales have baleen instead of teeth.  But the most important thing about a whale is that it is a mammal.

 

We like to use Venn diagrams to compare and contrast things that we are learning about.  We used the Venn diagram to compare and contrast the attributes of the baleen and toothed whales.  We used the information from the Venn diagram to write fiction stories about an adventure we had with a pet whale.

 

 

Fictional Whale Stories

 

Charlie
by James

 

I have a pet whale named Charlie.  He is a baleen whale.  It is a blue whale.  I got him at a pet shop.  He eats krill.  I keep him in my pool.  I had an adventure in Florida with Charlie.  I went in the pool with him.  It was fun.  I love Charlie.

 

 

My Blue Whale
by Sam

 

If I had a whale for a pet I would put it in the pool because it would be too big to fit in my house.  I would name my blue whale Blue Samantha.  I would feed it krill.  I would play ball with Blue Samantha.  I ride Blue Samantha to the ocean.  Then we found a seahorse.  It wanted to play with us.  Then we went home with our new friend.

 

 

Whales
by Kaila

 

One day my mom and I got a pet whale at the pet store.  It is a toothed whale.  I put it in the ocean.  Her name is Kaila and she is a girl.  Her color is gray and I give her fish.  My family and I went to my grandma's.  We put my whale in the pool at grandma's.  Then I gave her fish.  Then we went home.  I have fun with my pet whale.

 

 

Honey The Whale
by Amanda

 

My whale is a baleen whale.  Her name is Honey.  She lives in the sea.  I ride on her back.  She uses echo location to see if any sharks are coming.  She eats krill.  She is a blue whale.  She is a nice whale because she keeps me safe.  I love Honey.

 

 

My Whale
by Julia

 

One day my whale named Stars took me on an adventure to California.  She ate krill on the way.  She is a blue whale.  She has baleen instead of teeth.  I got her from the pet store.  I keep her in a big tank.  I ride on her back.  It was fun in California.  That is why I like my whale.

 

 

In June our class will be visiting the Stony Brook Museum of Long Island Natural Sciences.  As part of their Seashore program the children will be involved in learning about more whales as well as other marine life indigenous to our Long Island area.