If you live in the Pacific Northwest, salmon are a big deal. Ecologically. Economically. Culturally. Recreationally. I would argue that salmon are the defining feature of life in the Pacific Northwest. Being a salmon biologist myself, I may be a bit biased.
Many schools in our area have Salmon in the Classroom programs where students get to raise salmon from egg to fry in their own school and then release them into the wild. Many of the non-profit organizations that provide Salmon in the Classroom (or Salmon in the Schools) also offer free community events where the public can come and release salmon that were raised in a local library or the organizations office. They often offer times to view the developing salmon too for public/homeschoolers. This is an incredible way to build personal connections with science and environmental stewardship.
If your student(s) are raising salmon or just interested in salmon, maybe they want to explore the world of salmon by researching and writing informational reports.
I created a printable packet that includes 29 topics/questions to engage your 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th grade, or homeschool students in the exploration of salmon. Students can work together to each complete 1 page to complete a class book or each student could work on completing this project individually for a larger-scale assignment.
Each topic includes 2 pages: a student instruction page and a template to draw and write their responses to the questions. It is a combination of informational text research and reading, scientific writing, drawing, some math, and science. The topics covers the salmon life cycle, species of salmon, salmon anatomy, ecosystem interactions, salmon survival, and what humans can do to help salmon. Students are expected to choose a topic to dive deeper into, conduct research using the resource links or books listed for their topic, take notes, and then produce a final informational report.
Please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store to download this resource.
Here are some page examples:
