Finny The Shark helps us learn opposites with this fun craft! With our printable template and a little careful gluing, you’ll have a great tool to show your little ones an example of big and small. That being said, this isn’t really a fun craft to tackle with your little one, but rather something you could put together on your own that will make your little ones smile. At first, they’ll see a picture of Finny The Shark, but then, Finny opens wide and we find two little fishes swimming in their mouth! A big fish, and little fish! Learning opposites with lots of giggles!

Things you’ll need

• Template – print out
• 2 toothpicks
• 2 medium-size popsicle sticks
• Glue
• Tape
• Scissors
• Clothespin
• Glue gun *if you don’t have a glue gun, sticky tack will work, but won’t last as long.

Steps

Cut out Finny The Shark and the little fish from the printed template.

Turn the cutouts over and place the top and bottom half together. Line up the popsicle sticks, one on the top part of Finny The Shark, and one on the bottom. Line them up as closely as you can without having them stick out. Glue into place with a glue stick – you can add tape for extra security.

Place the clothespin at the tail end of the popsicle sticks with the axis (spring end) lined up to the end of both sticks – one part of the clothespin is glued to the top popsicle stick, and the other to the bottom. Glue them into place using hot glue and a glue gun – this will help secure the uneven surface of the clothespin.

Trim the tops off of the toothpicks. Glue the little fish to each tip. Squeeze the clothespin to open Finny The Shark’s mouth, and line up the little fish where you would like them to be seen in the open mouth. Glue the toothpick’s ends to the bottom popsicle stick, and trim if needed. 

Have fun open and closing Finny The Shark’s mouth, and revealing the little fish!

Get the printable template to make your own Big Fish, Little Fish craft, and practice opposites with your little one!

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Try these ideas in the classroom or at home!

• This song is wonderful for exploring and reviewing opposites. If your students are familiar with the other Super Simple versions of Open Shut Them, they will be excited to sing about a whole new set of opposite pairs.
• Along with a new set of opposite pairs, we get new gestures, too! Encourage your students to try out the gestures. You can even do opposite charades! One student can act out the gesture of one of the opposite pairs, and everyone has to guess what the opposite is. Sometimes an important part of gestures is our facial expressions. Be sure to exaggerate your facial expressions to best express the meaning of the word.
• In this song, we sing about the opposite pair on and off, which can have different meanings. In the music video, we show the lights being turned on and off. But it can also mean being on and off of something, like a book being on a table, or off the table. You can discuss both meanings and create gestures for both.
• Use the vocabulary from the song for a fun group game. Assign each student a word from the song (you can use words from other versions of Open Shut Them too) making sure each word has a pair that is also assigned. Then have them walk around the room making the gesture to represent their word until they find their opposites pair to make a match.
• See if your students can find ways to demonstrate the opposite pairs from the song in real life around the classroom. For example, for on and off they might turn the lights on and off. For clean and dirty, they might show their hands and then wash them. For empty and full, they might show a glass full of water, and then drink it all for empty. Finding the opposite pairs in real life will help little ones better understand the vocabulary and retain the information.

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Try some of these ideas in the classroom or at home!

• This song is a great one to get little ones up and moving. Have your students sit in a circle as they move their bodies forward and backwards and their arms up and down, or have them standing up and making bigger movements with their whole bodies, forward, backward, up, down, this way, that way.
• This is a great song to introduce different kinds of weather. If your students are new to this vocabulary, trying using weather flashcards as you sing.
• It’s also a great song to introduce and review directional vocabulary. Words and phrases like, this way, that way, forward, backward, up and down, and over. Have your students follow you as you say each word. “This way!” “Forward!” “Down!” “That way!” They can either sit or stand while they do this. If they are sitting, have them lean with their bodies and do up and down with their arms.
• You can also do this as a game of Simon Says. Once your students are good at the game, try making purposeful mistakes for an extra challenge and see if they can do as you say, not as you do.
• Role play this song by making a part of your classroom a boat, and choosing one student to be the captain. The captain invites students onto the boat one at a time, singing the song, and doing the action. Each students can sing about a different kind of weather as they climb aboard!
• This is a great song to sing during a water unit about sea creatures or oceans. If you have a water table, play the song and have students act out the movements using a toy boat. This is also great interactive play for bath time!
• Try our Popsicle Stick Pirates craft, and move your handmade pirates along to the song.

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