SONGS
Arctic Friends Around the Ocean
(to the tune of "Jingle Bells") 
(to the tune of Frere Jacques"
Traveling to the north,I see big whales,
Explore the Arctic Sea, I see big whales,
Near the icy shores,
Whales and seals we'll meet. In the sea,
Bears of white stand tall, In the sea.
There's blubber on 'em all.
Oh it is so cold way up north Swimming, diving, blowing,
Near the Arctic sea! Oh... Swimming, diving, blowing,
Polar bear, polar bear, In the waves,
Searching for a seal. In the waves.
In the water, under snow,
That's its favorite meal. (REPEAT) (Add your own animals.)
Walrus calf, walrus calf,
Swimming like a seal.
Clams and worms and amphipods,
will be your grown up meal. (REPEAT)
Ringed seal pup, ringed seal pup,
Hiding in your lair.
When your mother leaves to fish,
Watch out for polar bears! (REPEAT)
Killer whale, killer whale,
Hunting in the sea.
Camouflaged to hide from prey,
You'll catch them easily.
Walruses, polar bears, and a variety of whales and seals make the Arctic their home. A thick layer of fat called blubber helps keep them warm in the chilly seas.
Dolphin Song
(to the tune of "Doo-Wa Diddy Diddy")
There I was, just a swimming' in the sea.
Singing eeeeeeeeee!
All of a sudden there's a dolphin next to me.
Singing eeeeeeeeee!
CHORUS
She swam fast (REPEAT).
She dove deep (REPEAT).
She swam fast, she dove deep.
Hey this dolphin can't be beat!
Singing eeeeeeeeee!eeeeeeeeee!
Dolphins make sounds for navigating and communicating.
Little Baby Shamu
(to the tune of: "Little Bunny Foo Foo")
Little Baby Shamu
Swimming through the ocean,
Chasing after Shamu!"
Swimming in the sea.
When Shamu, says:
"Little Baby Shamu,
I can hardly see you,
Swimming through the ocean,
Chasing after me!"
And Baby Shamu says:
"I'm staying out of sight.
That's because I'm black and white,
I don't want a great big shark,
Chasing after me!"
And Shamu says: "Little Baby Shamu,
I am so very proud of you,
Let's swim together and,
Find something to eat."
Many animals have camouflage to hide from predators or from their prey. Although a healthy adult killer whale has no predators, calves and ill or injured killer whales can be hunted by sharks.
Dolphin Family
(to the tune of "The Addams Family")
When they get in the notion,
They jump out of the ocean,
With tail fluke locomotion,
The Dolphin Family.
Swim in the sea. Eee! Eee!
Swim in the sea. Eee! Eee!
Swim in the sea,
Live in a pod,
Swim in the sea. Eee! Eee!
I bet you didn't suppose,
Their blowhole was their nose,
And in and out air goes,
The Dolphin Family.
Swim in the sea. Eee! Eee!
Swim in the sea. Eee! Eee!
Swim in the sea,
Live in a pod,
Swim in the sea. Eee! Eee!
Bottlenose dolphins belong to the family Delphinidae. Other whales in the dolphin family include killer whales, pilot whales, and Commerson's dolphins.
Picking Up Some Trash
(to the tune of "I'm Picking Up a Baby Bumble Bee")
I'm picking up some trash from the big blue sea.
Keeping the ocean clean for you and me.
I'm picking up some trash from the big blue sea.
Why don't you come and join me!
My friends and I are cleaning up the sea,
For whales and dolphins swimming happily.
My friends and I are cleaning up the sea.
Look how pretty it can be.
We're keeping a11 the oceans nice and clean.
Have some fun and join our clean-up team.
We're keeping all the oceans nice and clean.
Come and join our team!
POEMS
Sea Animals
Meish Goldish
What do you see in the sea?
Animals moving free!
Snails and whales
Using their tails.
Seals and eels
Looking for meals.
Catfish, flatfish
Chasing fat fish.
What do see in the sea?
Animals moving free!
Riddle
-Unknown
I can walk on this
If it's wet or dry;
I can put it in a pail
And make a pie.
If I hold it in my hands
It will trickle through,
I can find it at the seaside
And so can you.
Answer: Sand
At the Sea-Side
Robert Louis Stevenson
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.
My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.
Beaches
Karla Kushkin
There are reaches of beaches
With nothing but sand
Where you go with a shovel
A pail and a friend
And you dig together
Well into the winter
The summer
The autumn
The former
The latter.
Years pass and you leave
Walking off hand in hand.
It doesn't much matter
How long you both dig there,
The sand will not end.
The Sea
Barbara M. Hales
The sea, the sea,
The rolling sea;
The endless waves
Are calling me.
The curling fingers
Beckoning,
Inviting as
The sea gull's wing.
The feeling swells
And I must go
To meet the tide
And feel the glow;
Remembering
The salt sea spray,
And sea gull's wing
Of yesterday.
The Flattered Flying Fish
E.V. Rieu
Said the Shark to the Flying Fish over the phone:
"Will you join me tonight? I am dining alone.
Let me order a nice little dinner for two!
And come as you are, in your shimmering blue."
Said the Flying Fish: "Fancy remembering me,
And the dress that I wore at the Porpoises' tea!"
"How could I forget?" said the Shark in his guile:
"I expect you at eight!" and rang off with a smile.
She has powdered her nose; she has put on her things;
She is off with one flap of her luminous wings.
O little one, lovely, light-hearted and vain,
The Moon will not shine on your beauty again!
The Lobsters and the Fiddler Crab
Frederick J. Forster
The lobsters came ashore one night
In the merry month of June,
And coaxed the fiddler crab to play
A rollicking tango tune.
The lobsters danced, the fiddler played
Till morning, rosy red,
Chased the dancers into the sea
And the fiddler home to bed!
The Shark
J. J. Bell
Oh, what a lark to fish for shark
With Grandpapa for bait!
The Shark would be in time for tea
And Grandpapa be late
The Sea
Anonymous
Behold the wonders of the mighty deep,
Where crabs and lobsters learn to creep,
And little fishes learn to swim,
And clumsy sailors tumble in.
Sea Shell
Amy Lowell
Sea Shell, Sea Shell,
Sing me a song; O please!
A song of ships, and sailor men,
And parrots, and tropical trees,
Of islands lost in the Spanish Main
Which no man ever may find again,
Of fishes and corals under the waves,
And sea horses stabled in great green caves.
Sea Shell, Sea Shell,
Sing of the things you know so well.
Until I Saw the Sea
Lilian Moore
Until I saw the sea
I did not know
that wind
could wrinkle water so.
I never knew
that sun
could splinter a whole sea of blue.
Nor
did I know before,
a sea breathes in and out upon a shore.
Beela by the Sea
Leroy F. Jackson
Catch a floater, catch an eel,
Catch a lazy whale,
Catch an oyster by the heel
And put him in a pail.
There's lots of work for Uncle Ike,
Fatty Ford and me
All day long and half the night
At Beela by the sea.
The Codfish
Anonymous
The codfish lays ten thousand eggs,
The homely hen lays one.
The codfish never cackles
To tell you what she's done.
And so we scorn the codfish,
While the humble hen we prize,
Which only goes to show you
That it pays to advertise.
How Everything Happens
(Based on a Study of the Wave)
May Swenson
happen.
to
up
stacking
is
something
When nothing is happening
When it happens
something
pulls
back
not
to
happen.
When has happened.
pulling back stacking up
happens
has happened stacks up.
When it something nothing
pulls back while
Then nothing is happening.
happens.
and
forward
pushes
up
stacks
something
Then
The Octopus
Ogden Nash
Tell me, O Octopus, I begs,
Is those things arms or is they legs?
I marvel at thee, Octopus;
If I were thou, I'd call me Us.
Seal
See how he dives
From the rocks with a zoom!
Through his watery room
Past crabs and eels
And green seaweed,
Past fluffs of sandy
Minnow feed!
See how he swims
With a swerve and a twist,
A flip of the flipper,
A flick of the wrist!
Quicksilver-quick,
Softer than spray,
Down he plunges
And sweeps away;
Before you can think,
Before you can utter
Words like "Dill pickle"
Or "Apple butter,"
Back up he swims
Past Sting Ray and Shark,
Out with a zoom,
A whoop, a bark;
Before you can say
Whatever you wish,
He plops at your side
With a mouthful of fish!
William Jay Smith
Sea Gull
Elizabeth Coatsworth
The sea gull curves his wings,
the sea gull turns his eyes.
Get down into the water, fish!
(if you are wise.)
The sea gull slants his 'wings,
the sea gull turns his head.
Get deep into the water, fish!
(or you'll be dead.)
The Performing Seal
Who is so proud
As not to feel
A secret awe
Before a seal
That keeps such sleek
And wet repose
While twirling candles
On his nose?
Rachel Field
English Nursery Rhyme
If all the seas were one sea,
What a great sea that would be!
If all the trees were one tree,
What a great tree that would be
And if all the axes were one ax
What a great ax that would be!
And if all the men were one man,
What a great man that would be
And if the great man took the great ax,
And cut down the great tree,
And let it fall into the great sea
What a splish-splash that would be!
The Sandpiper
Frances Frost
At the edge of tide
He stops to wonder,
Races through
The lace of thunder.
On toothpick legs
Swift and brittle,
He runs and pipes
And his voice is little.
But small or not,
He has a notion
To outshout
The Atlantic Ocean.
This Ship
This ship in the dock was at the end of its trip
The man on deck was the captain of the ship
The name of the captain was Old Ben Brown
He played the ukulele with his trousers down.
Michael Rosen
The Sandpiper
Witter Bynner
Along the sea-edge, like a gnome
Or rolling pebble in the foam,
As though he timed the ocean's throbbing,
Runs a piper, bobbing, bobbing.
Now he stiffens, now he wilts,
Like a little boy on stilts!
Creatures burrow, insects hide,
When they see the piper glide.
You would think him out of joint,
Till his bill began to point.
You would doubt if he could fly,
Till his straightness arrows by.
You would take him for a clown,
Till he peeps and flutters down,
Vigilant among the grasses,
Where a fledgling bobs and passes.
The Diver
Ian Serraillier
I put on my aqua-lung and plunge,
Exploring, like a ship with a glass keel,
The secrets of the deep. Along my lazy road
On and on I steal -
Over waving bushes which at a touch explode
Into shrimps, then closing rock to the tune of the tide;
Over crabs that vanish in puffs of sand.
Look, a string of pearls bubbling at my side
Breaks in my hand -
Those pearls were my breath! ... Does that hollow hide
Some old Armada wreck in seaweed furled,
Crusted with barnacles, her cannon rusted,
The great San Philip? What bullion in her hold?
Pieces of eight, silver crowns, and bars of solid gold?
I shall never know. Too soon the clasping cold
Fastens on flesh and limb
And pulls me to the surface. Shivering, back I swim
To the beach, the noisy crowds, the ordinary world.
Fishes' Evening Song
Dahlov Ipcar
Flip flop,
Flip flap,
Slip slap,
Lip lap;
Water sounds,
Soothing sounds.
We fan our fins
As we lie
Resting here
Eye to eye.
Water falls
Drop by drop
Plip plop,
Drip drop.
Plink plunk,
Splash splish;
Fish fins fan,
Fish tails swish,
Swush, swash, swish.
This we wish ...
Water cold,
Water clear,
Water smooth,
Just to soothe
Sleepy fish.
The Walrus
The Walrus lives on icy floes
And unsuspecting Eskimoes.
Don't bring your wife to Arctic Tundra
A Walrus may bob up from undra.
Michael Flanders
The Shark
A treacherous monster is the Shark,
He never makes the least remark.
And when he sees you on the sand,
He doesn't seem to want to land.
He watches you take off your clothes,
And not the least excitement shows.
His eyes do not grow bright or roll,
He has astounding self-control.
He waits till you are quite undressed,
And seems to take no interest.
And when towards the sea you leap,
He looks as if he were asleep.
But when you once get in his range,
His whole demeanor seems to change.
He throws his body right about,
And his true character comes out.
It's no use crying or appealing,
He seems to lose all decent feeling.
After this warning you will wish
To keep clear of this treacherous fish.
His back is black, his stomach white,
He has a very dangerous bite.
Lord Alfred Douglas
Sea Turtle
Paddling, we saw that turtle; saw its eyes open,
its flippers outstretched, as it floated
Seawater lapped at its shell, spreading across its back.
Australian Aborigine
Electric Eel
X. J. Kennedy
Some think Electric Eel lacks looks,
Some others find it stunning.
A homegrown battery it packs
To keep its shocker running.
Why, you could light all New York's streets
And sky scrapers and stuff,
With one Electric Eel alone
If it were long enough.
Narwhal
X. J. Kennedy
Around their igloo fires with glee
The Eskimos tell tales
Of Narwhal. Listen and you'll see
This unicorn of whales
Through frosty waves off Greenland's
coast
Majestically advance.
And like a knight come forth
to joust
Hold high its wary lance.
From: Where the Sidewalk Ends
PIRATE CAPTAIN JIM
Shel Silverstein
"Walk the plank," says Pirate Jim."
"But Captain Jim, I cannot swim."
"Then you must steer us through the gale."
"But Captain Jim, I cannot sail."
"Then down with the galley slaves you go."
"But Captain Jim, I cannot row."
"Then you must be the pirate's clerk."
"But Captain Jim, I cannot work."
"Then a pirate captain you must be."
"Thank you, Jim," says Captain Me."
From: Where the Sidewalk Ends
FISH
Shel Silverstein
The little fish eats the tiny fish,
The big fish eats the little fish -
So only the biggest fish gets fat.
Do you know any folks like that?
From: Where the Sidewalk Ends
Where the Sidewalk Ends
MELINDA MAE
Shel Silverstein
Have you heard of tiny Melida Mae
Who ate a monstrous whale?
She though she could,
She said she would,
So she started in right at the tail.
And everyone said, "You're much too small,"
But that didn't bother Melinda at all.
She took little bites and she chewed very slow,
Just like a good girl should …
… And in eighty-nine years she ate that whale
Because she said she would!
From: A Light in the Attic
ANCHORED
Our anchor's too big for our ship,
So we're sittin' here tryin' to think.
If we leave it behind we'll be lost.
If we haul it on board, we will sink.
If we sit and keep talkin' about it,
It will soon be too late for our trip.
It sure can be rough on a sailor
When the anchor's too big for the ship.
Shel Silverstein
From: A Light in the Attic
CAPTAIN BLACKBEARD DID WHAT?
Shel Silverstein
The sea is a-roarin', the sea gulls they screech,
The bosun he rants and he raves.
And the whole scurvy crew
Says, "It's true, yes it's true,
Ol' Captain Blackbeard's shaved."
We had buried some treasure (and bodies as well)
And was just sailin' back from the cave,
When he calls fer boiled water
And stomps down below
An' gor'but he comes up shaved.
There's a chickenish stubble, and fishbelly skin
On that face, once so blazin' and brave.
And his ol' faithful parrot
Can hardly bear it
Since ol' Captain Blackbeard shaved.
When he shouts, "Board and sink her!"
It sounds like a clinker
And gets lots of laughs from the slaves.
And his loud bawdy songs
Seem a little bit wrong
Since ol' Captain Blackbeard shaved.
Now no one is fearing his look or his lash
Or his threats of a watery grave.
And things ain't the same
In the piratin' game
Since ol' Captain Blackbeard shaved.
Electric Eels
Jack Prelutsky
Electric eels are rather rude,
they have a shocking attitude
and generate galvanic jolts
of ergs and amperes, watts and volts.
They don't distinguish friend from foe,
to shock and shock is all they know.
So only foolish people feel
a highly tense electric eel.
From: a PIZZA the size of the SUN
I'm Wrestling with an Octopus
Jack Prelutsky
I'm wrestling with an octopus
and faring less than well,
one peek at my predicament
should be enough to tell.
It held me in a hammerlock,
then swept me off my feet,
I'm getting the impression
that I simply can't compete.
I'd hoped that I could hold my own,
but after just a while,
I ascertained I couldn't match
an octopus's style.
It flipped me by a shoulder,
and it latched onto a hip,
essentially that octopus
has got me in its grip.
I tried assorted armlocks,
but invariably missed,
and now I'm in a headlock,
and it's clinging to my wrist.
It's wound around my ankles,
and it's wrapped around my chest -
when grappling with an octopus,
I come out second best.
From: a PIZZA the size of the SUN
The Manatee
Jack Prelutsky
I 'm partial to the manatee,
which emanates no vanity.
It swims amidst anemones
and hasn't any enemies.
From: The Other Side of the Door
If The Sea Were Over The Sky
Jeff Moss
If the sea were over the sky
Would minnows and motorboats fly?
Would each eagle you met
Be all soaking wet?
And would seals and eels always be dry?
From: The Other Side of the Door
Why It's Hard To Be Romantic
If You're An Octopus
Jeff Moss
She said, "Put your arms around me, honey,
Won't you hold me tight?"
He said, "By the time I put
all my arms around you
It'll be next Saturday night."
