Larry the Shark

Got to read one of my favorite picture books to the kids today. It's called Punia and the King of Sharks: A Hawaiian Folktale. Elementary kids love it! Kids are fascinated by sharks in the same way they are fascinated by Egyptian mummies and the Titanic. I once read a Bailey White interview or story about inspiring kids to read by setting a shelf of books about the Titanic in the first grade classroom. The kids were desperate to become better readers so they could find out more about the Titanic. What a powerful example of self-motivation.This is the beginning form for our giant shark. We will start the papier mache tomorrow, but today we had to work out the form. The shark is about six feet long. We began with a cardboard tube from inside upholstery fabric, crossed by a shorter, wider tube from a roll of butcher paper. We added a huge bottle from an Ozarka dispenser, but I don't really recommend that. I was hoping for a trash bag full of small Ozarka water bottles, but the donor's roommate mistook it for garbage! Imagine that. We did use about three dozen small bottles to add bulk without much weight. We also used Styrofoam egg cartons, meat trays, and mushroom containers, foil pie pans, coat hangers, and four rolls of clear packing tape.



We looked at photos of sharks, and did some careful analysis of shapes. I presented the seven and eight year-olds with a Trojan Horse scenario: You have made an emergency landing on an island inhabited by two tribes that have been at war for a long time. You realize you could help the tribe that has befriended you if you could show them how to make a mock giant shark. You do not speak their language, but you have all the different things that wash up on the island available to use to make the shark. This led to some really imaginative diagramatic drawings. Several kids drew cross-sections to show the oarsmen sitting on benches inside the fake shark. Others drew cut-aways to a high tech control room. Two kids drew instructions for chopping down palm trees. One drew specifications for sharp carving tools to shape the shark eyes. The best drawing involved a system of pulleys to lift the fake shark up into a tree during construction, and provided a security force of soldiers with bows and arrows. One student elaborated on the scenario to have the fake shark appear to leap from the water while being controlled from a small submarine. Some drew their shark being made from all the recyclables, and some showed the various equipment needed. One shark appeared to be grinning at the thought of eating a pair of scissors. That led to a fun discussion of the weird things really found in the stomachs of sharks, like a full suit of armor!With the five and six year-olds, we worked more on figuring out how to draw a shark using lots of triangles. We also folded pieces of paper into triangles for shark teeth the way an honor guard folds an American flag. It was hard work, but a shark has rows and rows of teeth, so we were up to the task. We will keep the shark around the school for a long time. It will be fun when kids come back and show their friends our group creation. They will say, "I helped when we made the giant shark," in the way old-timers said, "I was there when they drove the Golden Spike!"


In this photo our shark is nearly finished. Some students want to name it Bruce, while others prefer Larry. We have used gray tissue paper to make the finish, rather than painting the surface. The students have united through their ownership of the shark.