Daily Discoveries for August
Shells and Snails Day
August 1
Setting the Stage
• Get a shell collection for a display. Gather travel brochures and posters that illustrate beach areas, places to find lots of shells. Add related literature around the shells. Arrange the shells on sandpaper for a sandy kind of feel.
• Construct a semantic web with all the facts your students know (or would like to know) about shells and snails.
More teacher resources
WORKSHEET & Sample PDF Activity
Sample PDF Activity
Literary Exploration
Animal Defenses by Malcom Penny
Animals of Sea and Shore by Illa Podendorf
Animals of Seashore by Hidetomo Oda
Animals That Live in Shells by Dean Morris
The Biggest House in the World by Leo Lionni
Clams Can’t Sing by James Stevenson
The Crab That Played with the Sea by Rudyard Kipling
Discovering Slugs and Snails by Jennifer Coldrey
Do Not Open by Brinton Turkle
The First Book of Seashells by Betty Cayanna
Hermit Crabs by Kathleen Pohl
A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
The How and Why Wonder Book of Sea Shells by Donald F. Low
How Many Snails?: A Counting Book by Paul Giganti
Is This a House for a Hermit Crab? by Megan McDonald
Junior Science Book of Seashells by Sam and Beryl Epstien
Kermit the Hermit by Bill Peet
On My Beach There Are Many Pebbles by Leo Lionni
Sea Shells of the World by R. Tucker Abbott
The Seashell Song by Susie Jenkin-Pearce
Seashore by Steve Parker
The Seashore Book by E. Boyd Smith
Seashores by Herbert Zim and Lester Ingle
Shells by Alex Arthur
Shells by Jennifer Coldrey
Shells Are Skeletons by Joan Berg Victor
Shells: Where You Can Find Them by Elizabeth Clemons
Slugs and Snails by Chris Henwood
Slugs and Snails by Colin Walker
Snail in the Woods by Joanne Ryder
Snail, Where Are You? by Tomi Ungerer
Snail’s Birthday Problem by Angela McAllister
The Snail’s Spell by Joanne Ryder
Snails by Dorothy Childs Hogner
Snails by Silvia Johnson
Snails by Hidetomo Oda
Snails by Herbert Spencer Zim
Snails of Land and Sea by Hilda Simion
Snoopy’s Facts and Fun Book About Seashores by Charles M. Shultz
The Story Snail by Anne Rockwell
Treasures in the Sea by Robert McClung
True Book of Pebbles and Shells by Illa Podendort
Why Snails Have Shells by Carolyn Han
Why the Sea Is Salty and Other Questions About Oceans by Anita Ganeri
Language Experience
• Create a Venn diagram depicting the similarities and differences between a shell and a snail.
• Let students brainstorm other words that have the same beginning sounds of shell and snail (SH and SN). Compare lists by crossing off words that everyone wrote down. Give a prize to the student with the most words. See reproducible on page 10.
Math Experience
• Let students weigh and measure individual and small groups of shells.
• Have students sort, classify and graph shells according to shape, size and texture.
Science/Health Experience
• Today is a great day to learn about the science of snails and their habitat.
• Study different types of shells. Show examples or pictures of some of the more common (scallop, conch, clam, spindle, cowry and sundial). Which ones once housed ocean animals? Leave these at a science nature table with a magnifying glass for further study and observation.
Social Studies Experience
• Are your students aware that in some parts of the world (such as Europe), chocolate-covered snails are considered a food delicacy? Discuss how our culture creates a feeling of acceptance or hesitancy about foods based on what we are accustomed to.
Music/Dramatic Experience
• Encourage your students to come out of their “shells” by playing the Seashell Game! They sit in a circle and pass a seashell around while one person, “it,” closes his or her eyes. At a signal, “it” opens his or her eyes and they all say, “Seashell, seashell, who has the seashell?” “It” guesses who has the shell in a closed hand. If “it” is right, that person trades places with whoever had the shell. If not, the game continues and “it” tries again.
ISBN No. 1-57310-452-3
Printing No. 987654321
Table of Contents
August 1 Shells and Snails Day – 5
August 2 Smart Cookies Day – 11
August 3 Watermelon Day – 18
August 4 No Monkeyin’ Around Day – 23
August 5 Friendship Day – 32
August 6 Busy Bee Day – 41
August 7 Jurassic Spark Day – 46
August 8 This Is Your Life Day – 55
August 9 Body Beautiful Day – 63
August 10 Goin’ on a Bear Hunt Day – 69
August 11 Reptilian Wonders Day – 78
August 12 Insectophobia Day – 83
August 13 International Left-Handers’ Day – 90
August 14 Deep in the Rain Forest Day – 93
August 15 National Relaxation Day – 99
August 16 Teddy Bear Picnic Day – 103
August 17 Turtle Toodleoo Day – 111
August 18 Camping Day – 115
August 19 Desert Day – 122
August 20 Sunflower Sensations Day – 127
August 21 Hawaii Statehood Day – 132
August 22 Career Day – 137
August 23 Dreamin’ Day – 144
August 24 Magnificent Manners Day – 148
August 25 Feeling Feelings Day – 153
August 26 Boat Bonanza Day – 158
August 27 Mother Teresa’s Birthday – 163
August 28 Down on the Farm Day – 169
August 29 What’s Cookin’? Day – 176
August 30 Shapes and Sizes Day – 182
August 31 Summer Travels Day – 185
August Calendar – 192
