Fish Facts
Fish Anatomy
Fish
Adaptations
Fish Games
Fish Links
Fish Home
Under the Sea
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Fish
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Fish come in all shapes,
colors, and sizes. They are some of the most diverse animals that
live in the sea.
Fish lived on earth
before dinosaurs. They are one of the oldest groups of animals. Fish
are cold-blooded vertebrates (have a backbone). All fish have gills which absorb oxygen from
the water into the bloodstream. All fish have fins and most have scales which protect
their body.
What is a
Fish? - PDF file
Fish
Mini Book - PDF file
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agnathas
(jawless fish)
lamprey
and hagfish
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These
are one of the earliest fish. They are very primitive. A lamprey attaches
itself to the outside of another fish with its mouth which is a sucking disc
ringed with sharp teeth. The lamprey cuts a hole though another fish's
skin and sucks blood and body fluids out of the prey. Lampreys are considered to
be parasitic fish. They have gill slits and do not have a swim bladder
like bony fish. |
chondrichthyes
(cartilaginous fish)
shark, stingray, skate
Click
on the skate to learn more about cartilaginous fish |
These fish
have no bones. Instead, they have a skeleton made of cartilage.
They have gill slits rather than an operculum. They do not have a
swim bladder. The liver on a shark is very large and thought help give the
fish buoyancy. Sharks, skates and rays do not have anal fins.
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osteichthyes
(bony fish)
American eel, puffer fish, sea robin, flounder, seahorse
Click
on the flounder to learn more about bony fish |
These fish
are the most common fish. They have a skeleton of bone, scales, paired
fins, one pair of gill openings jaws, and paired nostrils. Bony fish
have swim bladders which they use to dive
and come up to the surface. Their gills are covered by a hard outer flap
called an operculum. Bony fish have swim bladders which help them
stay afloat. By changing the amount of air in the bladder, the fish stays
balanced in the water.
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Fish Activities
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After
looking at specimens and reading about strange and weird fish, we play fish
bingo. I have made bingo cards with the pictures of about 24 different
kinds of fish. We use goldfish crackers as our markers.
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Click
here to get fish bingo pictures
Blank
bingo card for Fish Bingo - PDF file
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I do
several activities with fish. We design our own fish, draw them out on
large pieces of white bulletin board paper and then stuff them. Then we
hang them from the ceiling. Each student gives the fish a name and talks
about the adaptations they have given their fish. As a creative writing activity
they must write a descriptive paragraph of their fish which not only includes a
physical description of the fish and its adaptations, but includes information
about habitat, diet, and life cycle.
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Fashion a
Fish Activity - word file
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Get fresh fish from the fish market and make prints from the
fish. You use a brayer to coat the fish with black paint and then place a
sheet of newsprint over the fish and press evenly all over. You can also
use this method to make fish t-shirts.
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Have the
students draw and color pictures of different types of fish. Cut them
out and put them on a bulletin board. Cover the bulletin board with
blue food wrap or cellophane. Put one layer across the top and as you
go down the board make more layers of the blue wrap so that the color
deepens as it does in the ocean.
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Make a
Porthole from two styrofoam plates. Have the children draw and color
fish. Cut them out. Glue the fish and plants onto the inside of
one of the plates.. Glue sand below the fish and let it dry. Cut
a large hole in the center of the second plate. Tape blue cellophane to
the inside of the place. Glue or staple the two plates together.
Look through the "porthole" to see the ocean scene. |
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Fish
camouflage activity -
How
To Hide in the Ocean
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Dissect
spiny dogfish sharks and perch (bony) which are available
from Carolina
Biological Supply. Compare the anatomy of the two types of
fish.
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Fish
worksheets for you to download.
All of
these files are PDF and Microsoft Word files which I created for use with this unit. You will
need the latest version of Acrobat Reader to view the PDF files. Click on the box
to get the latest version.
What is a
Fish? - PDF file
Bony
Fish - Word file
The
Major Groups of Fish - PDF file
Fish
Classification Activity - PDF file
Fish
KWL chart - PDF file
Bony
fish anatomy worksheets - Word file
Adaptations
in Fish chart - Word file
Fish
body shape activity - word file
Fashion a
Fish Activity - word file
Read
a Fish chart -word file
Fish
Crossword Puzzle - PDF file
Is it a
Fish or a Shark? - word file
Blank
bingo card for Fish Bingo - PDF file
Fish
Mini Book - PDF file
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