Life cycle of salmon connecting to math

As one of the provocation suggested, educators can bring their class on a field trip to watch the returns of salmons. If the timing is not possible an educator can bring in a live salmon with a fish tank in the classroom as a provocation. Bringing children to see real live salmon can spark the interest of the children regarding the life cycle of the salmon.

 From here educator can connect this experience with math. Educators can ask questions regarding the volume of water a salmon needs to live, and make hypothesis on how many eggs a salmon may lay. Measure the volume and mass of water in the fish tank can be done at the water table while children are participating in water play (according to the FDLK play nourishes every aspect of children's development). Children can choose to use measuring cups or any loose parts they choose to explore the volume of water with. Children can than mark down their findings and share with the class.

Educators can connect the volume of water that a salmon needs to survive with the past experiences of children. Questions like "How much water do we need daily?" "What do we need water for?" "Can we live without water?"

Hypothesize the length and weight of the salmon, than using measuring tape or ruler to measure an actual salmon or an exact measurement toy salmon. You can also ask the children how big do they think the salmon grows each year. From this question you can ask the children to measure their friends height and compare it to the growth of the salmon. For example comparing the height of a junior kindergarten and a senior kindergarten, than comparing their age and height difference.  

For more ideas on measuring height of children please visit this teacher's blog.
http://mrscomstock.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/how-many-cubes-tall-are-we/


Other than talking about water and height, educators can ask the children what animals eat salmon to survive. The video "Life Cycle of Salmon song" can help spark and provoke children ideas. Educators can than write down all the predators and ask the children to count each of the animals and categorize them.

After listing the number of predators, the educator can than ask "How many salmon can a bear eat?" "How many salmon can a bird eat?" "How many salmon can you eat?"

The goal for these activities and learning is being able to use stander and not stander measuring tools and using numbers to count by ones for JK and twos for SK.

All these meets the expectation of the FDLK curriculum under mathematics.

FDLK M2.2 Demonstrate, through investigation, an awareness of non-standard measuring devices (e.g. Feet, hand, string to measure length) and standard measuring devices (e.g. measuring cups at the water and sand centre) and strategies for using them (FDLK p.104).

Here is a website with all the information needed regarding the weight, height, and years of a salmon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_run