There is a reason that Baby Shark doo doo doo is so popular (sorry if that is now playing in your head on repeat)… kids love sharks! No matter the age, there is something fascinating about sharks (and marine biology in general!) In this mega-list of shark activities for kids, we will learn about different types of sharks and do a shark STEM activity to learn why sharks float (it is so cool!). Plus, we put together tons of free shark worksheets to practice math, reading and writing. There are even shark recipes for kids like cake batter, popcorn shark bait and shark quesadillas. But, before we begin, join our Facebook Group and “like” our Facebook Page, so you won’t miss out on any of our educational fun!
🧪 Shark STEM Activities for Kids
There are tons of great shark STEM activities for kids to choose from!
- Do you know why sharks don’t sink? Watch the video below to learn why! You can also do this shark STEM activity for a hands-on way why sharks float!
- PBS learning media has tons of fantastic shark videos for kids to learn more about these fascinating creatures. Here is a list of some of the most popular ones!
- Learn about how tagging lemon sharks and other ocean predators has taught scientists about coastal ecosystems with this video.
- Have you heard of a thresher shark? It is a very rare type of shark that is not seen by divers often! Learn more about them by watching this video.
- Do shipwrecks excite you? Watch this video to see divers explore a shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina and see dozens of sand tiger sharks! The divers will try to figure out why sand tiger sharks swarm around shipwrecks!
- Learn about the role that sharks play in the ecosystem with this Gulf Detectives video.
- Discovery Education created this great video on ninja sharks and discusses how six species of sharks have unique adaptations that has made them “the most lethal hunters in the sea.” The video is almost 42 minutes, so it is better suited for kids with longer attention spans.
- If you have time for an in-depth shark unit, here is a fantastic shark lesson plan from the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. It includes a Sniff-o-Rama activity (because sharks are very good at detecting scents), as well as activities to explore shark’s other senses like vision, smell and even their ability to detect electrical charges (electroreception!). If you want more sensorial activities, definitely checkout this Five Senses Lesson Plan.
🥣 Shark Recipes for Kids
I love to incorporate recipes and fun food ideas into lesson plans!
- How adorable are these edible sharks made with Oreo Cookies?!
- You can start the meal off with these kid-friendly Shark Quesadillas.
- For a fun snack, make this cake batter, popcorn shark bait!
- If you really want to go over the top, make these jiggly shark pops with gummy sharks!
📚 Shark Books & Reading Material
Take your pick from these free shark worksheets and reading materials!
- Kindergarten – 2nd Grades:
- Learn about the difference between fact and fiction! Have your child read this list from the Florida Museum, and guess which ones are facts and which are fiction. Then check their answers with the included answer sheet!
- Practice reading the names of different types of sharks with these free, printable, Shark Bingo cards. The Bingo game even includes calling cards. To make it extra special, use Swedish Fish as the Bingo markers!
- Practice reading sight words (or letters, for our younger kids) with this fun DIY Mr. Shark Alphabet Chomper Game!
- Another fun reading (or letter recognition game) is this Feed the Shark Alphabet Game for Kids!
- Here is a free, printable shark attack sight word game to make reading fun!
- Learn about contextual clue, synonyms and antonyms with these shark context clue worksheets.
- Read and collect facts about sharks with these free shark worksheets.
- Work on reading short vowel sounds with these free, pop-up shark craft printouts.
- Want even more sight word practice? Here’s another ocean themed pack of sight word cards.
- 3rd – 5th Grades:
- Want a super engaging non-fiction book for your kids to read? Then you absolutely must read I Survived The Shark Attacks of 1916, which you can even listen to for free on Amazon’s Audible. Use this shark writing template to write a newspaper article about sharks!
- Read this press release from Oceana about 45 tagged sharks and what we can learn from them. There is also an interactive map to checkout and lots of facts about different types of sharks including dusk, scalloped hammerhead, porbeagle, great hammerhead, shortfin mako, blue and tiger sharks.
- Research about great white sharks and complete these free shark writing worksheets.
✏ Shark Free Writing Worksheets
- Preschool
- Let’s strengthen our fine motor skills (which is helpful for our future writing skills) with this DIY feed the shark game. All you need is an empty baby wipes container, pom poms, googly eyes and construction paper.
- Kindergarten – 2nd Grade:
- 3rd – 5th Grade:
- Learn about prefixes and suffixes with this super fun, free, printable shark game.
- Shark Writing Prompt – Imagine that you are a shark for a day. Write about your life as a shark. What do you do? Where do you go? How does it feel? How is it different from your life as a human?
🧮 Shark Math Worksheets {Free Printables}
- Kindergarten – 2nd Grades:
- Learn about different types of triangles (equilateral, isosceles and scalene) as well as the angles found in triangles (acute, right and obtuse) with this fun, shark playdough activity!
- Practice your addition (or counting, for younger kids) with these shark color by number sheets.
- Play sharks and minnows, while practicing addition, with this free, printable predator and prey math game.
- 3rd – 5th Grades:
🖌 DIY Shark Crafts
Below is a fantastic list of DIY shark arts and crafts projects for kids!
- Make shark teeth out of an egg carton with some brads like this!
- Use this free, shark printable to make a DIY shark puppet, as shown in this tutorial.
- Make an origami shark corner bookmark (using origami paper), as shown in the following video.
- Learn how to draw a shark with this free worksheet!
- Make a super cute, shark cootie catcher using this free printable! Fold it as shown in the following video.
And the most fun part… share a photo or video of your shark STEM activities, your DIY shark crafts, or any of your other fun activities on Facebook! Make sure to include a link to this website or to our Facebook Group and Facebook Page, so that we can see it too! I’ve purposefully added a lot of options for parents who need to keep their kiddos occupied for more time and to allow you to cater to your children’s preferences.
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