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Little Fish, Little Fish: An Ocean Story
Text Co-Authored by Students in Dr. Paula Boxie's Class at Washington State University in collaboration with Children in Mrs. Rennebohm Franz's Primary Multiage Class at Sunnyside Elementary School, Pullman, Washington, U.S.A. Illustrations by Children in Mrs. Rennebohm Franz's Class ***All documents on our classroom web pages are copyrighted. The text and images are for educational use only. Please honor the integrity and original ownership of all text, design and images. We request that you not replicate the webpage designs nor publish the images and text without permission. For permission contact Kristi Rennebohm Franz at kfranz@psd267.wednet.edu |
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Little Fish, Little Fish, what do you see? I see a big black and white Orca swimming at me! page 1 |
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Little Fish, Little Fish what do you feel? I feel the slimy seaweed tickling my belly as I dodge a seal. page 2 |
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Little Fish, Little Fish, what do you taste? I taste the salty water as I splash through the current with haste! page 3 |
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Little Fish, Little Fish what do you smell? I smell the tiny plankton that float through the water making my tummy rumble like a dancing shell. page 4 |
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Little Fish, Little Fish, what do you hear? I hear the sounds of life in the ocean, and they are clear. page 5 The End |
The following words
from Little Fish, Little Fish were selected and defined by
the class to help young readers understand the
story. current:
water that's always moving dodge:
quickly move out of the way of something haste:
moves fast Little
Fish: a
clownfish that is orange and white and lives in salt
water ocean:
salt water that covers 3/4 of the earth Orca:
a black and white whale that lives in the
ocean plankton:
tiny plants and animals like krill that float in
water rumble:
a rolling sound salty
water:
water that's salty like the ocean seal:
an animal with flippers and fur that lives in the
ocean seaweed:
plants that grow in the ocean slimy: wet, soggy
and slippery
CHILDREN'S
COMMENTS ABOUT THE LITTLE FISH, LITTLE FISH
PROJECT "I
liked it when we got to help make the book because we got to
draw pictures." "I
like drawing clownfish." I
like drawing the frames around pictures like Vera B.
Williams does in her books." "I
liked drawing the pictures because every time I draw the
ocean, it makes me imagine that I'm in the
ocean." "I
learned that you can put books on the Internet and that it
takes a lot of sketching to get the picture to look like
you're underwater." CHILDREN'S
COMMENTS ABOUT BEING AUTHORS "I
learned when you write a book you have to really concentrate
to try and spell your words right." "I
learned that writing a book is really, really
fun." "I
learned how to find words in a rhyming
dictionary." "I
learned lots of rhyming words like "see" and "me" and "feel"
and "seal." "Reading
Little Fish, Little Fish is interesting 'cause you learn new
words like haste, current, and dodge." "I
learned you have to edit your book before you publish
it." "I
like doing the book because it makes other people happy when
they read it." "I
learned that you can put books on a website so that
everybody can read it on a computers." CHILDREN'S
COMMENTS ABOUT THE WEBSITE "It
was fun making it and fun going into the website many
times." "My
favorite page is 'Little Fish, Little Fish, what do you
feel...' because of the seaweed tickling the
clownfish." "I
like the part with the 'dancing shell'." "I
like the one with the clownfish and the sea
horses." "My
favorite page is the first [page of the story]
because I like orcas." "I
want to show it to my mom and dad." "I
want to share it with the kindergartners at Sunnyside
because I want my sister and my friend to see it and they
are in kindergarten."
By Kristi
Rennebohm Franz, Teacher INTRODUCTION The
opportunity for first and second grade children in our
Sunnyside School class to collaborate with WSU College of
Education students on the Little Fish, Little Fish picture
pattern book website was integrated with the classroom
science/technology and literacy lessons. To enhance and
extend the science curricular concepts of water habitats,
and the literacy curricular concepts of authoring and
illustrating, the class read children's fiction, nonfiction,
literature. In this classroom, the class uses children's
literature to "learn to read" and to "read to learn" across
the curricula. With both the
science and the literacy lessons, children in this classroom
are using computer software programs and the Internet to
enhance both learning content and skills in reading,
recording, writing, and communicating what they
learn. The science
lessons, that were integrated with the Little Fish, Little
Fish project, focused on fresh and salt water. The primary
children in this class participate in an ongoing global
water habitat curricular Internet project on the
International Education and Resource Network (I*EARN). Using
email and network conferencing, children, in schools around
the world, exchange their ecological science observations on
their local aquatic science observation sites. They exchange
messages about the actions they are taking with what they
are learning about those habitats. This class has been
participating in a longitudinal study of a local pond
habitat near the school. They have also learned about the
salt water habitats of the Washington State coast and
connections to global salt water habitats. The
collaboration on Little Fish, Little Fish website was also
integrated with the classroom focus on learning about the
book writing process by studying authors and illustrators.
This process includes two integrated and parallel learning
experiences: 1) the process
of creating artwork through first thinking and talking about
ideas for the artwork, followed by doing sketches,
conferencing on those sketches, and then creating a final
piece of artwork; and 2) the process
of creating writing through first thinking and talking about
writing ideas, creating a writing sketch as a draft,
conferencing on the writing sketch for revision and editing;
and then creating a final writing piece. As part of the
Little Fish,Little Fish project, the following books were
read in: 1) small group reading times; 2) individual and
paired reading times; and/or 3) whole class storytime.
During small group reading times, multiple copies of some
books were used for direct reading instruction to develop
reading strategies along with content knowledge and
comprehension. During
individual reading times, the books were readily accessible
to the children on the classroom bookshelves or on display
tables for self-selection. During
individual reading times, the children select a book to
"work on" and read silently. When they need assistance to
predict words they do to designated classroom peer reading
helpers, the teacher or parent volunteers for a brief
conference. They do written book reports on what they have
read. During paired
reading time, two children work together on a book with one
child being an independent reader who reads aloud to a
developing reader and then helps the developing reader learn
the words of the book. They may select a book of their own
collaborative choosing or be assigned a specific book by the
teacher. During whole
class storytime, the teacher or independent readers read
books aloud to the class. The storytime includes
conversations about the books and the
illustrations. Where's
That Fish? By Barbara Brenner and Bernice Chardiet,
Illustrated by Carol Schwartz, Scholastic, Inc., New York,
NY, l994 This book
provides colorful illustrations of fish habitats, including
the clownfish. The text provides scientific facts that are
fascinating to the children. It was used for whole class
storytime and independent reading time. The illustrations
inspired the Little Fish, Little Fish
illustrations. Dear Mr.
Blueberry By
Simon James, Margaret
K. McElderry Books, New YorkMacmillan Publishing
Company, New
York, NY, l991 This book is a
series of letters between a child and her teacher about her
interest in whales and their salt water habitats. It
provides science information that compares fresh and salt
water as well as providing inspiration for written
communication through letters. We used multiple copies of
this book in small reading groups. It was a frequent choice
by the children for independent and shared reading
times. Jason and
the Sea Otter By
Joe Barber-Starkey, Illustrated
by Paul MontpellierHarbour Publishing, Madeira
Park, BC Canada, l989 This is a
story about a young Pacific Northwest Native American boy
and his adventures in his canoe with sea otter and kelp
seaweed. The illustrations provide rich, colorful context
for the coastal ocean habitats of the Pacific Northwest. The
words and illustrations of this book inspired the narrative
and artwork about the seaweed in the Little Fish, Little
Fish book. The Sign of
the Seashores By
Graeme Base, Harry
N. Abrams, Publishers, New York, NY, l992 This fiction
sea life story, set in the coral reefs, engages children's
positive affective involvement in text through rhyming
words. It provided a journey into their imaginations and
discussions comparing fiction to nonfiction stories about
sea life. It provided inspiration for the seashores motif in
the frame of a page of Little Fish, Little Fish. Whales
Created by
Gallimard Jeunesse, Claude Delafosse, Ute Fuhr, and Raoul
Sautai, Illustrated
by Ute Fuhr and Raoul Sautai, Scholastic,
Inc., New York, NY, 1991 This First
Discovery Book is a favorite science book in our classroom
because of the illustrations and transparent pages that flip
back and forth to give different views on an object. It has
a good description and illustration of the tiny plankton,
called krill, that are eaten by whales. The
Seashore Created
by Gallimard Jeunesse and Elisabeth Cohat,
Illustrated by
Pierre de Hugo, Scholastic,
Inc., New York, NY, l990 This First
Discovery Book that provides science facts about such
seashore inhabitants which the children had encountered in a
illustrations of other books., such as mollusks,
crustaceans, sea anemone, starfish, and sea
urchins. Whale
Song By
Tony Johnston, Illustrated
by Ed Young, General
Publishing Co. Limited, Toronto, Canada, l987 The story
illustrations by Ed young are coupled with the lyrical verse
of Tony Johnston to truly create a sense of being underwater
for young readers. Curious
Clownfish Story
by Eric Maddern, Illustrations
by Adrienne Kennaway, Frances
Lincoln Limited, Apollo Works, London, England,
l990 This book was
the one that inspired our science lessons and paintings of
clownfish. The beautiful and colorful illustrations are
favorites of children in our classroom! A Raft of
Sea Otters By
Vicki Leon, Photographs
by Richard Burich and Jeff Foott,Blake
Publishing, Inc. San Luis Obispo, CA, l987 This
nonfiction science book is a favorite of the class for its
photographs of sea otters in their kelp salt water
habitat. Davy's
Dream: A Young Boy's Adventures With Orca Whales
By Paul Owen
Lewis,Beyond Words Publishing, Inc. Hillsboro, OR,
l988 The class
learned about Paul Owen Lewis as a Pacific Northwest writer
and illustrator. The children especially liked the
illustrations that give a view of from both above and below
the water. This
is a classroom favorite book about the orca whales as a pod
community. Jessie's
Island By
Sheryl McFarlane, Illustrations
by Sheena Lott, Orca
Book Publishers, Victoria, Canada, l992 This real life
story is set in the coastal Pacific Northwest near Puget
Sound, Washington. It inspires appreciation for the natural
wonders of this region's salt water plants and wildlife,
including seals. Whales and
Other Sea Mammals By
Elsa Posell, Children's
Press, Chicago, l982 This
nonfiction science book is a resource for learning facts
about whales, seals, sea lions, walrus, and
manatees. Keep the
Lights Burning Abbie By
Peter and Connie Rupp, Illustrations
by Peter E. Hansen, Carolrhoda
Books, Minneapolis, MN, l985 After seeing
the lighthouse icon that the WSU students put on the Little
Fish website, our class read this historical fiction
lighthouse story. Winter
Whale By
Joanne Ryder, Illustrated
by Michael Rothman, Morrow
Junoir Books, New York, NY, l991 This story,
like Whale Song by Tony Johnston, takes the reader
underwater to imagine life as a whale. The Little
Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge
By Hildegarde H.
Swift and Lynd Ward, Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich Publishers, San Deigo CA,
l942,
l992 This was a
second historical lighthouse book enjoyed by the
class. Sea Mammals
of the World By
Bernard Stonehouse, Illustrations
by Martin Camm, Penguin
Books, New York, NY, l985 This book is a
great reference for extensive science facts about sea
mammals. When children encounter a named sea life species in
a fiction story, they can come to this book for further
science information. My Cousin
Has Eight Legs By
Jasper Tompkins, Sasquatch
Books, Seattle, WA, l992 Author and
illustrator Jasper Tompkins grew up in Pullman Washington
and is a favorite Pacific Northwest writer. This fiction
story, about an octopus, is set in Puget Sound, Washington.
Children delight in the humor of this book. In our classroom
it inspired putting octopi on one of the frames of the
Little Fish illustrations and also inspired each of the
children create her/his own version of an octopus
story. I Wonder If
I'll See A Whale By
Francis Ward Weller, Illustrations
by Ted Lewin, Philomel
Books, New York, NY, l991 This is a
story of a young girl going whale watching. As the children
listen to the words and look at the pictures, they are
enthralled by the up-close illustrations that so
magnificently communicate to them the majesty of these large
mammals of the sea! Zoobooks
Seals and Sea Lions Created
by John Bonnett Wexo, Wildlife
Education, Ltd., San Deigo, CA, 1992 The children
used this Zoobook to learn more scientific, historical and
geographic information about seals and sea lions. Meet the
Authors and Illustrators By
Deborah Kovacs and James Preller, Scholastic,
Inc., New York, NY, l991 This resource
books gives profiles of picture book authors and
illustrators. The class used it to study some of their
favorite authors and illustrators, especially Eric Carle and
Vera B. Williams. Talking
With Artists By
Pat Cummings, Simon
and Schuster Children's Publishing Division, New York,
NY, l992 This resource
book gives profiles interviews of children's literature
artists. The interviews include having the artist talk about
their art experience as children. Rhyming
Dictionary By
Peter Israel and Peg Streep, Illustrated
by Heidi Stetson, Scripps
Howard Company, New York, NY, l991 This is the
writing reference book that our class used to find rhyming
words for the Little Fish, Little Fish story text. It
provides a resource for mini-lessons on rhyming suffixes,
homonyms, and spelling, as well as skills on using an index
to locate information. In Flight
With David McPhail: A Creative Autobiography
By David
McPhail, Heinemann,
Portsmouth, NH, l996 In this book,
as David McPhail tells his story of being an author and
illustrator, his words and pictures bring to life the
process of creating a good book. It provides a context in
which children can start to understand all of the steps it
takes to take an idea for a story to publication. Lost!
By David
McPhail, Little
Brown and Company, Boston, MA, l990 After reading
In Flight With David McPhail, the class read this book. In
his autobiography, David McPhail uses illustrations from
this book to exemplify his process of writing a
book. Brown Bear,
Brown Bear What Did You See? By
Bill Martin, Jr., Pictures
by Eric Carle, Henry
Holt and Company, new York, NY, l983 This pattern
picture book was the inspiration for the Little Fish, Little
Fish website book. If You Were
A Writer By
Joan Lowery Nixon, Illustrated
by Bruce Degen, Four
Winds Press, New York, NY, l988 This
illustrated nonfiction story tells of how a young girl
becomes inspired to be a writer as she watches the work of
her mother who is an author publishing a book. It is an
affirmation of how real writers find ideas for stories from
the world that surrounds them and from their
imaginations. A Chair for
My Mother By
Vera B. Williams, Scholastic,
Inc., New York, NY, l982 This is one of
the books by Vera B. Williams that was read by the class to
study of her as an author and illustrator (and to learn to
read). The
colorful illustrations, especially her style of putting
decorative painted frames around each illustration, inspired
the children's decisions for illustrations in Little Fish,
Little Fish. Cherries
and Cherry Pits By
Vera B. Williams, Greenwillow
Books, New York, NY, l996 This book
tells the story of a young girl, Bidemmi, who uses colorful
markers to create illustrations as she tells stories to her
neighbor friend. It is a book that can inspire children to
create illustrations that tell a story.
By
Kristi Rennebohm Franz INTRODUCTION Our Pullman
School district is currently implementing the Washington
State Essential Learnings. Our school is presently giving
concentrated focus on the writing standards within these
Essential Learnings. This Little Fish, Little Fish narrative
website has exemplified how the process of focusing on
writing using technology can develop the literacy essential
learning skills in the early school years that help children
meet the high expectations of the writing standards.
Specifically, this project integrated the writing process
with the process of using quality children's literature to
help children "learn to read" and "read to learn". It
provided meaningful opportunity and motivation for children
to work hard on using new and descriptive vocabulary in
their writing. It motivated them to work on the skills of
syntax and spelling. It provided opportunity for them to
develop a greater understanding of writing as a
collaborative process of creating, revising, editing,
illustrating, and publishing text. BEGINNING
THE PROJECT COLLABORATION ON-LINE As two
teachers, Paula Boxie at the university level and I at the
elementary school level, we began the idea for this project
with a shared vision that, together with our students, we
could develop meaningful uses of technology that would: 1)
enhance literacy learning for young children; and
simultaneously 2) enhance professional development of
preservice education students, university and public school
faculty. We wanted to bring our two classrooms of students
together on-line and in-person to develop the vision. Once
Paula invited her students to create a meaningful primary
grade literacy project using technology and they, in turn,
invited the children's participation, the vision evolved
into a valued teaching and learning experience far beyond
our initial expectations! The actual
process of having my classroom of primary age children
collaborate on literacy through technology with Paula's
class of undergraduate students began when the WSU students
sent an email to the class inviting them to collaborate on
creating a picture pattern book. The WSU students created a
first draft on a website of the story Little Fish, Little
Fish. Their idea was to create a picture pattern book based
on the literary patterns of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do
You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle
(l983). They sent the website address to the class by email
so that the children could begin their author/illustrator
online participation. The first time
the children went to the Little Fish, Little Fish website,
they were excited to see the beginnings of the book. They
could immediately imagine some ideas for illustrations. One
of their first editing comments was that the title page of
the website was difficult to read because of the color of
the text. The children immediately sent an email to the WSU
students, who, upon reading the children's message,
immediately made changes in the title page of the book and
emailed the class to take another look at it. These changes
in the website took place within one school day's time
through the technology of email and Internet website
construction tools. When the children returned from lunch to
so quickly see the results of their emailed editing comments
(sent just that morning), they were amazed. As a teacher
watching their amazement, I could see their motivation to
continue working on the project was heightened by the
immediacy of collaborative response by the WSU students. It
was then that I realized this project was going to be a
turbo-charged teaching and learning opportunity! CHILDREN AS
CO-AUTHORS AND EDITORS ON-LINE After reading
the book text on the website, the class printed out hard
copies of the website story text and earnestly began their
job as co-authors/editors of the book. They began working on
ideas for editing the words and for creating illustrations.
They talked about words of the Little Fish, Little Fish
story in comparison to the patterns of words in the book
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Did You See? written by Bill
Martin, Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle. In small
reading/writing groups, they talked about how each of Bill
Martin's pages of words has two patterns: 1) the first
sentence always asked a question and the second sentence
gave an answer; and 2) the last words in both sentences
always rhymed. And, they decided they wanted the words of
the Little Fish, Little Fish book to match the pattern on
the words in Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You
See?. The process of
working on authoring words included reading about how
authors of children's books write and rewrite their words
until they get them just right. It included a visit from a
children's author who explained how he developed the words
for his story, including how his editor and he went back and
forth many times on word ideas. Each child was
assigned to a heterogeneous reading/writing group to work
collaboratively on editing one book page of the Little Fish,
Little Fish. Their assignment was to make the story text
match the patterns they had identified in the book Brown
Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Using a classroom rhyming
dictionary, I helped them look up words with suffix sounds
that matched the last word of each question. They read aloud
the list of rhyming words offered by the dictionary and
chose ones that had meaning to the context of the story.
This provided a wonderful literacy lesson on word morphology
and the process of creating language patterns in the print!
When all groups had finished editing their assigned page,
each of the small groups shared their pages with the whole
class for final approval. Then the class sent their edited
text ideas to the WSU students by email. CHILDREN AS
ILLUSTRATORS The class then
began working on ideas for illustrations. The classroom
lessons for this ideating process included looking at
illustrations in our classroom pattern picture books to see
how pictures matched the authors' descriptive words. It
included "pouring over" our collection of classroom
children's literature that we were using for our ongoing
science water habitat unit to find illustrations of ocean
habitats, especially whales, fish, sea otters, seaweed,
plankton, and shells. It included reading about what
children's book illustrators have to say about how they
create their pictures. The next step
in the illustrating process was to have children work in
small groups to create sketches of possible illustrations.
For this process, Paula Boxie's WSU students came to our
class to work with the children. Groups of children with WSU
students were scattered around the room with pencils, paper,
crayons, markers earnestly talking and drawing together.
Several groups used the classroom computer drawing software
to generate illustration sketches. As the class came back
together, they shared their sketches and decided that they
would prefer to use the traditional multimedia tools of
pencil/crayon on paper to make the final website book
illustrations. They also commented on how some of their
classmates' illustrations ideas had great ways of showing
action words like "tickling my belly", and "dodge a seal",
and "splash through the current with haste". Before
creating the final website illustrations, we had a class
discussion to decide answers to the following
questions: 1. What would
Little Fish look like? Prior to the
invitation by the WSU students to collaborate on this Little
Fish, Little Fish book, our class had been studying
clownfish as inhabitants of the ocean. After reading the
story Curious Clownfish by Eric Maddern and illustrated by
Adrienne Kennaway (l990), children did individual
crayon/watercolor paintings of the clownfish in it's sea
anemone habitat. They decided, since they already knew how
to draw this fish and because they thought it was a cool
fish, they wanted Little Fish to be a clownfish. 2. What would
the settings look like? Would they be the same for each
illustration or different? What would the pages look
like? To answer this
question, I had the class do mini-lessons on looking at
samples of children's picture books to make observations on
how the settings were similar or different from page to
page. They decided
the setting would always be the ocean, sometimes with sky
and sometimes completely underwater. And they decided that
the Little Fish was definitely moving from place to place as
it experienced the action of the story so the contents of
the setting would change. As we were
working on the illustration ideas for the Little Fish,
Little Fish website book, our class was simultaneously
reading books by author/illustrator Vera B. Williams (l982,
l986) and studying the patterns of her illustrations. The
children were captivated by her style of using bright colors
and putting decorative frames around each illustrated page.
They decided it would be cool to make Vera B. Williams-like
frames around the Little Fish, Little Fish illustrations.
Thinking about their favorite illustrations and story
characters in our classroom collection of ocean habitat
children's literature books, they decided the Vera B.
Williams frames would have sea horses, octopi, shells, fish,
and seaweed. I selected a
few children to do the final illustrations. Each of those
children chose pages they wanted to illustrate. Using a
ruler, I created symmetrical frame lines on the paper for
them. They used their pencils to sketch the frame patterns
and the story illustration. Before starting to color the
illustrations with crayons, they conferenced with one
another and myself on these pencil sketches to decide if
they were the way they wanted them and if they, completely
as possible, matched the story words. This process
of doing pencil sketches, conferencing, and then doing the
final artwork steps is parallel to how children in our
classroom do their beginning writing sketches, then their
conferencing for editing and then their final publishing.
The process of illustrating stories helps them better
understand the parallel process of writing story
words. FINAL
COLLABORATION The WSU
students came again to Sunnyside School to meet with the
children on how the website project was going and to collect
the children's illustrations. After the WSU students had
scanned in the children's final illustrations, added them to
the website, and had made the final text editing changes
that the children had sent them by email, the class viewed
and reviewed the website on our classroom computer. Seeing
the children's facial and verbal expressions of delight when
they saw not only the illustrations and edited text in final
publication, but also the extra pages about the project that
the WSU students had added, I decided to email the WSU
students and invite them to come again to the classroom
where they could know, first hand, face-to-face, the
children's reactions to their collaborative
efforts. The
conversations of that visit became not only a celebration of
what the WSU and Sunnyside children had accomplished
together, but also led to the idea of adding a dictionary
page that would explain words in the story. Our
conversations that day also included having the children
share the many children's literature books they had read in
class to learn about the ocean habitat. We decided it would
be a good idea to add that bibliography of books to the
site. We decided to have both Paula Boxie and myself add
pages describing our role as teachers and describing the
classroom lessons embedded in this literacy website
collaboration. Many teaching
and learning experiences through the collaboration on this
project. The project provided powerful literacy lessons for
the children on authoring and illustrating a book. It
provided opportunities for my professional development as I
found opportunity after opportunity to develop meaningful
literacy lessons on such skills as having young children use
dictionary skills and children's literature to develop their
writing. The technology made it possible to collaborate with
the WSU students when we were unable to be together in
person. The immediacy of technology email, website revision
and website viewing enabled the children to quickly see the
outcome of their editing and illustrating work. The
enthusiasm by the WSU students for making full use of
website tools to encourage children's writing work inspires
us to continue using this technology in our literacy
curriculum. As a classroom teacher, I am deeply grateful to
the WSU students and their instructor, Paula Boxie, for the
wonderful inspiration they have been to our class and for
the many hours of extra effort they contributed to designing
and publishing the Little Fish, Little Fish website
book. The children
shared the beginnings of the website with their parents
during their Fall parent/teacher/child portfolio
conferences. Now, they are excited to share the final
website publication with their families near and far and
with their peers at Sunnyside as well as their peers at
schools around the country and around the world with whom
they communicate through technology.
***All
documents on our classroom web pages are copyrighted. The text and
images are for educational use only. Please honor the integrity and
original ownership of all text, design and images. We request that
you not replicate the webpage designs nor publish the images and text
without permission. For permission contact Kristi Rennebohm Franz at
kfranz@psd267.wednet.edu