Mr. Ray’s Adventure
By Kelleigh Murphy & Kristy Lucia

Unit Topic: The Ocean/Fish
 1st – 2nd Grade

•	Lesson Topic or Theme: Pacific & Indian Ocean Fish

•	Lesson Objectives: 
      The student will be able to understand the different kinds of fish that are located in the Indian and Pacific Ocean. They should be able to identify fish from the different characteristics, as well as other sea creatures.

•	Instructional Technique: 
      We will start off by asking the students what they know about fish in a class discussion, followed by worksheets and activities. They will be able to go on a website we created for this lesson. Later we will wrap it up with a crossword puzzle and a poster project where the students will pick a specific fish and make a poster on it. This lesson will take about two days to complete.

•	Instructional Materials: 
       The materials you will need are the fish maze, some old national geographic magazines, the book is What is it like to be a Fish by Wendy Pfeffer, Mr. Ray’s Adventure game, worksheet that goes with Mr. Ray’s Adventure, crossword puzzle, small posters to give to students.

•	Theoretical Perspective:  It is important for students to be able to classify animals by their physical characteristics. We chose fish because most teachers will pick the cute animals that live on land, and no one really focuses on the sea life. We want our students to realize that there is life in the ocean and not just on land.

•	ISTE Standards: Students develop positive attitudes toward technology uses that support lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits, and productivity.

•	Curriculum Frameworks: Classify plants and animals according to the physical characteristics that they share.

Procedure
A. Introductory Activity – 

            Fish Maze. Have the students start off by doing this maze. This will help them to start to think. Later once they are done with this maze, ask them what this maze might have to do with the next lesson the class will be learning about.
B. Step-by-step – 
	First we will start off by asking out students if they know of any types of fish. Maybe ones that they have at home in a tank, ones they might have seen in movies or on TV. As we get this discussion going, you can read your students a book on fish. A great book to use is What is it like to be a Fish by Wendy Pfeffer. This way you can get your students thinking about the different kinds of fish that live in the ocean. This book combines clear text and bright pictures to explain the difference between humans and fish. Afterwards, ask students to share and discuss what they learned from the book.
	Next we are going to talk about the different kinds of fish that live in the ocean and we are going to talk about the different characteristics of fish. The students should be taught about these following characteristics: fish are cold-blooded, fish live underwater, fish have gills, and a fish's body is covered in scales. They should also be able to notice the different colors of the fish and its structure. Once they have learned these different characteristics, show your students different pictures of fish, some might be from a book, or cut outs from a magazine (example clown fish, butterfly fish and so on.) You later can also talk about different sea creatures as well such at start fish, octopus and seahorse that are also found in the ocean. This way they can learn more about the different ocean life before they move onto their activity.
	Once they your students have a good handle on the different characteristics. Have them go through some old national geographic magazines or any other nature magazine and cut out different types of fish that they see, and underneath have your students write down the different characteristics. This is a good review for the students to practice. 
	When the students have completed this assignment, they can go onto the computers and play the game that you provided. It is an educational game called Mr. Rays Adventure. This is a game where the students have to use their characteristic skills to pick the correct answer to gather up all of Mr. Ray’s friends to get them back safely. In this game your students will recognize the characters from Finding Nemo. They will go on a journey with Mr. Ray and along the way they can also learn more information about the different types of fish and sea creatures that are in the movie. There will be links provided for more information that your students can click on. Give them the worksheet that goes along with the website as well. They will have to record what they chose for answers along the way, as well as give a reason of why they chose that answer. That way you can see how many tries it will take for your students to complete this adventure.
C. Closure – 
	To close this lesson, we will be asking the students to make a small poseter showing the different characteristics of a fish of their choosing. They will have to show this to their classmates as a final evaluation. This will show that they understand what the different types of characteristics that fish have as well as other research they would like to share. They can pick any type of fish that they would like to from the Indian and Pacific Ocean, as well as any of the fish that was from the website.	
D. Adaptations for different learners – 
	For our lesson we have many adaptations for the different learners. If someone has attention problems, they can work with a partner throughout this lesson. They can also have their partner help them with the website. If a student doesn’t do well with timed tests, you can give them extra time during class to finish it. Also, if a student has trouble hearing, you can write down all the facts that you will be going over with your students for them, as well as many different pictures to help describe their characteristics. You can even get your students involved by writing these down for the student who needs help. 
E. Homework – 
	For homework, if your students run out of time, they can finish up their posters and present their information the following day. This way you are allowing your students extra time, and especially for the students who might work a little slower than others. If there are some students who are already finished they can put their posters to the side and wait to present with their classmates the following day. The next day have your students show their posters to the class as a final evaluation.
Evaluation
A. How/ when will you determine if you have met your objectives?
	One of the assessments for the students was when they went through the national geographic magazines or any other nature book and clipped the different photos. The students were then asked to write down 2-3 of the different characteristics the fish has. Our second assessment for the students was the website. As the students go alone with this website, they have to write down what the select for each question. This will allow us to see how many tries it takes them to select the right answer. They will have to use their knowledge of the different characteristics that fish have. And lastly, the students will have to make a poster that will be graded. They will have to pick a fish and describe its characteristics and show it to the class. To document this, we will put this in our grade book as separate grades.

Name: __________________                 Date: __________