The Five Oceans

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box is heavy, and when you tip it something inside slops. Hold it up with both arms and let it move. Whole class chants:

Tip it slowly, one way and then the other — slop… slop. Do not shake it. Sniff at the lid and pull your head back, surprised.

Wavy hands, low and slow: “Water!”

4 min Teach · Water

The bowl sits in the middle where everybody can see the light move on it. Say it twice; the second time they do the actions with you:

Then the real thing, one child at a time, all the way round: one fingertip in, one touch to the tongue, and the face they make is the lesson. Nobody drinks, nobody puts a hand back in twice.

Littles do the wavy hands and say “Water!” Bigs owe you the frame: “The water is salty.” “The ocean is blue.”

Teacher fails: lift the whole bowl up to your mouth with both hands and get ready to drink the lot. Take a big breath first. Wait for the shouting.

Chinese moment: lay the 水 card beside the bowl and say 海水是咸的 — sea water is salty. Leave the card there; the row grows by one card a day and by Friday it is the whole week: 水 · 海 · 鱼 · 船 · 蓝.

One fingertip only. Say it before the bowl comes out, and say it again while it goes round. Salt water in a mouthful is horrible; on a fingertip it is the best joke of the day.

3 min Song · Five Blue Oceans — chorus + Monday verse

The one song of the week — same chorus at every circle, one new verse each morning, the whole thing on Friday. Chords and the full sheet are on the Song tab. The freeze on “STOP” is the whole song: they will play it for the freeze alone.

3 min Game · Salty or sweet?

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Two cups on the mat: one plain water, one with the smallest pinch of sugar. Nobody is told which is which.

Everybody who wants a turn gets one. Littles just point at the cup and say “Water!” Bigs give you the whole thing: “This water is sweet.” “The ocean is salty.”

Finish by putting the salty sea-water bowl beside the two cups and asking which one the ocean is like. They will point straight at the salty one, and that is Monday done.

A pinch of sugar and a spoonful of salt, no more — the point is telling two tastes apart, not a shock. A child who does not want to taste holds the towel and hands the spoons out; that is a real job and it is theirs all week if they want it.

1 min Close

Everybody kneeling round the bowl, hands wavy. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? Commotion in the Ocean (Giles Andreae) — one short rhyme per sea creature. Read three, not the whole book, and do the actions.

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box is too small — the lid will not sit down flat. Chant, then try to press it shut with both hands and fail.

Shake it: one heavy roll, side to side. Peek in with one eye and go very quiet. Then lift out the globe in both hands, blue side first, and hold it up in front of your own face.

Both arms hug a big invisible ball: “Ocean!”

4 min Teach · Ocean

The globe goes round the circle and every child puts one flat hand on the blue. Say it twice; the second time they say it with you:

Then count them, on five fingers, pointing at the globe as each one is named: the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Southern and the Arctic. Say them once, count them twice, and do not test them — the number five is what they are keeping.

Littles hug the ball shape and say “Ocean!” Bigs owe you the sentence: “The ocean is blue.” “There are five oceans.”

Teacher fails: hold the globe up and count the oceans on your fingers — “one… two… nine!” Look delighted with yourself. Wait to be corrected, then count again, properly, with them.

Chinese moment: the 海 card joins 水 — 海洋. Then the best name of the week: the biggest ocean of all is 太平洋, and 太平 means peaceful — the peaceful ocean. Say it with a long calm hand across the blue. 大西洋 · 印度洋 · 南冰洋 · 北冰洋 can simply be pointed at.

3 min Song · Five Blue Oceans — chorus + Tuesday verse

Count the five fingers slowly on “count with me” and let them get ahead of you — they will. Counting real things in English, out loud, in a song, is worth three worksheets.

3 min Game · Spin to the ocean

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” The globe sits on the floor in the middle. One child spins it — gently — and one child stops it with a single finger.

If the finger is on blue the whole class shouts “OCEAN!” and waves; if it is on land they say “Land!” and stamp once. Go all the way round so everybody spins and everybody stops.

Keep a tally on the board, one mark per go, water in one column and land in the other. By the end the water column is enormous — and that is the whole week's big idea, drawn by them, without a single word of explanation.

Two children per turn — one spins, one stops — so nobody waits long and nobody spins it off the mat. If the globe is precious, do it on a cushion.

1 min Close

Everybody hugging a big invisible world. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? Lay the world-map cloth from last week on the floor and let them crawl across the blue on their tummies, “swimming” from one continent to the next. Last week's material, this week's idea.

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box rattles — a hard, clicky, dry rattle, nothing like Monday's slop. Chant, then shake it once and stop dead so they can hear it.

Shake it again, close to one child's ear. Sniff it — it smells faintly of the sea. Then tip one shell out into your palm and hold it up to the light.

Every shell goes round the circle, one each, held and listened to. Then the little fish come out: palms together, swimming: “Fish!”

4 min Teach · Fish

Everybody stands and we swim, twice — slow and low first, then quick:

Then the basin. The model fish go in the water and every child gets to make one swim with one finger while the others count the fish out loud. Five in, five out.

Littles do the swimming palms and say “Fish!” Bigs owe you the frame: “Fish swim in the water.” “I can see three fish.”

Teacher fails: put a fish carefully on the floor beside the basin and tell it to swim. Wait. Encourage it. Wait longer. Let them put it back in the water for you.

Chinese moment: the 鱼 card joins 水 · 海 — 小鱼. And the New Year phrase they already know from February comes back for one line: 年年有鱼（余） — that is why there is a fish on the table. Say it once and let the ones who remember it be pleased with themselves.

3 min Song · Five Blue Oceans — chorus + Wednesday verse

Sing this one moving: the whole circle swims round in one direction for the verse and sits back down for the chorus. It is the only verse of the week that gets everybody out of their place, so use it before the game, not after.

3 min Game · Fishing

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” The paper fish are spread out on the blue cloth (or straight on the floor), each with a paperclip on its nose. Two rods, two children, everybody else counting.

Littles hold the fish up and say “Fish!” Bigs give the whole sentence: “I caught a blue fish.” Every catch gets counted into the bucket out loud by everybody.

When the water is empty, count the whole catch together, laid out in one line, and then put them all back for the shelf tray.

Two rods only, and a clear order of turns, or this game becomes twenty children and one magnet. The waiting is easier if the ones waiting have the counting job.

1 min Close

Everybody's palms together, ready to swim. Whisper → normal → shout:

Got 3 spare minutes? The Rainbow Fish (Marcus Pfister) — the shiny scales get handed round and round. Hold the book so the foil catches the light; that is half the story.

2 min Magic Box hook

Today the box has two things in it and they could not be more different. Chant, then shake: one hard clunk, and nothing else at all.

Out comes the stone first — hand it round, both hands, and let everybody feel how heavy it is. Then reach back in and lift out the paper boat on two fingertips, as light as a leaf.

One flat hand rides an imaginary wave: “Boat!”

4 min Teach · Boat

The basin comes into the middle and the boat goes in first, gently. Say it twice; the second time they do the actions with you:

Then the stone goes in, from a low hand, and everybody watches it go straight to the bottom and stay there. Two words, said with the two objects in your hands: float and sink.

Littles ride the flat hand and say “Boat!” Bigs owe you the frame: “My boat can float.” “The stone sinks.”

Teacher fails: put the stone in first and wait for it to float. Lean over the basin. Wait some more. Ask them if it is coming up. Let them tell you why it never will.

Chinese moment: the 船 card joins 水 · 海 · 鱼 — 小船. And the two words the tray is really about: 浮 (float) and 沉 (sink). Say each one with the hand that goes with it — up on 浮, straight down on 沉.

3 min Song · Five Blue Oceans — chorus + Thursday verse

Do “quick as a wink” with an enormous slow wink and let them try to wink back. Half of them will blink both eyes and the other half will laugh; either way the word is theirs.

3 min Game · Sink or float?

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” One object at a time held up high above the basin, and the whole class votes before it goes in.

Then it goes straight into the right bowl — It floats or It sinks — carried there by the child who guessed loudest. Littles just do the thumb; Bigs say it: “The cork floats.” “The spoon sinks.”

Do the cork, the feather, the wooden block, the coin, the spoon and the leaf. Six is plenty. The surprise of the day is the coin: tiny, and it goes straight down.

Let the wrong guesses stand without correction — the water says who was right, not you. That is the whole point of a control of error, and this basin is the best one you will get all term.

1 min Close

Everybody's flat hand riding a wave. Whisper → normal → shout:

Before home time: fold one paper boat with each child who wants one, and write their name on the sail. They go home tonight and come back tomorrow for the last game — a boat with a name on it is a boat that gets remembered.

Got 3 spare minutes? Who Sank the Boat? (Pamela Allen) — a cow, a donkey, a sheep, a pig and a tiny mouse get into one boat. They will shout the answer at you on the last page.

2 min Magic Box hook

The box comes out bulging and will not quite shut.

Pull each thing out and hold it up in complete silence. They will supply the word before you can.

The bowl of sea water → “Water!”  The globe → “Ocean!”  The shells and the little fish → “Fish!”  The paper boat → “Boat!”

Last of all, right at the bottom, five long ribbons. Pull them out slowly, one after another, and let them fall across the circle. “BLUE!”

4 min Teach · Blue, then the whole week

Everybody stands. We tell the whole week with our bodies, twice — slow, then fast:

Then the colour itself, out loud and round the room: everybody finds one blue thing they can touch, puts a hand on it and holds still until every child has found one. Then all together: “Blue!”

Littles do the five gestures and shout the five words. Bigs owe you a whole sentence each: “The ocean is blue.” “Fish swim in the water.” “My boat can float.”

Teacher fails: put your hand proudly on something bright red and announce “Blue!” Look very pleased. Do it again with something yellow. Let them drag you to something actually blue.

Chinese moment: the 蓝 card completes the row — 水 · 海 · 鱼 · 船 · 蓝, the whole week on the mat. Say 蓝色的大海 once, all together, with the big wave arms. Then hold up the globe one last time: 太平洋 — the peaceful ocean, the biggest one there is.

3 min Song · Five Blue Oceans — Friday verse, then the WHOLE song

The finale: chorus → Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday → chorus, with the five ribbons held up round the outside of the circle. They learned it one verse a morning without ever noticing, and this run-through is the review of the whole week.

3 min Game · Five ocean ribbons

“One, two, three — eyes on me!” Five children stand well spread out, each holding one blue ribbon high — and each one is an ocean. Name them as they take their ribbon: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, Arctic.

Swim, freeze, swim, freeze. On each freeze, point at the nearest ribbon and the whole class shouts that ocean's name. Then swap: five new children take the ribbons.

Last round, everybody freezes and you count the ribbons out loud together, pointing — one, two, three, four, five. Five oceans, counted on five blue ribbons. That is the week, finished.

Nobody is ever out and nobody is caught. The ribbons are held up, never trailed on the floor — say it once before you start and it will not become a skipping rope.

1 min Close + awards

Every child gets a “You are a STAR!” award to take home. Then, standing with the ribbons still up, all five gestures:

Got 3 spare minutes? Everybody on their backs on the floor with the lights low, waving the ribbons slowly overhead while you sing the chorus once, quietly. It looks exactly like being under the sea, and it costs nothing.

The four chords

Tempo: rolling and unhurried, like a swell, with a big rest before the last “STOP!” so the freeze lands clean. Am is new this week and it is the easiest shape on the instrument — one finger, second fret of the top string — and it appears in one line only, “fish swim under”. Every verse is still just C and G7.

Chorus — sing it every single day

Sing the chorus twice each time. The actions are the whole point — a two-year-old who waves on “splash”, ducks under on “fish” and freezes dead on “STOP” has understood the week, whether or not a single word comes out.

One verse a day — every verse is just C and G7

The build: each day sing chorus → today's verse → chorus. By Friday they know five verses without ever “learning” the song — and Friday's finale, sung with the five blue ribbons held up round the circle, doubles as the review of the whole week.

If you're brand new to ukulele

Practice this loop for five minutes tonight: C (4 strums) → F (4 strums) → C → G7 → C. That is nearly the whole chorus. The one new shape is Am, and it is the kindest chord there is: one finger on the second fret of the string nearest your face, everything else open — and from C it is a single finger's move. It turns up once, on “fish swim under”, and that darker sound under the water is exactly why it is there. If your fingers get stuck, put the uke down, give one child the bowl of water to hold and do the finger-play instead: the class will not notice, and the actions carry the meaning either way.