Wanted: Pet Shark

Posted by Aug 17, 2017 Book Based Activities, Books

Are you a fan of sharks? Shark week has become practically a national holiday it seems. The Sharknado movies are now a franchise. Even if you haven’t seen Jaws, you know the theme song. (I actually taught my daughter to sing the Jaws theme when asked what a shark says). What is it that fascinates us about sharks? Today’s shark book for kids explores the idea of having a shark as a pet, and how they may not be all that different from the pets we already have!

Standard Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission from purchases you make through the links in this post. I was  provided a copy of the book in exchange for creative activities to pair with it by Bookroo. All opinions and ideas are my own.

Land Shark was written by Beth Ferry and illustrated by Ben Mantle. This brightly colored shark book tells the story of Bobby, a little boy who wants nothing but a shark for his birthday. When his parents surprise him with a puppy instead, Bobby is disappointed because he says shark lovers can never be dog lovers. As the puppy starts to destroy the house and cause lots of mayhem, Bobby starts to warm up to him, but still wants a shark.

This funny shark story is full of comparisons between dogs and sharks, and contains an important lesson about loving the pet that you have. With clever text and illustrations, parents and kids alike will both find themselves chuckling.

There are so many fun ways to bring this book to life and we had a lot of fun pairing it with shark activities for kids.

Feed the Shark Activity

This is a fun shark game that you can adapt for any age or skill level. To create our shark container, I cut a mouth shape into one side of a paper plate. I painted the remaining plate blue, and glued construction paper teeth, fins and eyes to it. Then I attached the shark to the front of an empty tissue box. You could also attach him to a plastic bag or a small basket. I also cut several small fish shapes out of different colors of construction paper.

Depending on the skill you are working on with your child, you can add letters, numbers, math equations, sight words, or anything else to the fish. Since my daughter is younger, I used different colors and drew different shapes onto the fish. As I called out colors or shapes to her, she had to run around and collect them up to feed to the shark.

You could make this more of a challenge by spreading the fish out over a larger area or hiding them around a room. We had a lot of fun playing this game, and she kept asking me to take the fish out so she could play again.

Shark Teeth Activity

This is a great activity for practicing shapes or counting with kids. I created this easy printable with 4 shark heads with open mouths and a shape label on each. Each shark has 10 teeth in matching shapes. You can use this printable to review shapes by having kids match the correct shape teeth to each shark. You can also use this to reinforce counting or number recognition by having kids add a certain number of teeth to the shark, by either giving them a number out loud or writing a number down.

Comparing Sharks & Dogs

This funny shark book points out some interesting similarities between puppies and sharks. This gives you an opportunity to talk to your kids about similarities and differences. Create a list of traits that dogs and sharks both have, as well as traits they don’t share.

You could also turn this into a game by having kids act out the exercise on an oversized Venn diagram. Create a large Venn diagram in chalk or masking tape and label each circle as either sharks or puppies. As you call out the traits on your list, have kids run to the circle for the animal that has that trait, or run to the center if it is a trait they share.

Creative Writing Activity

This book provides a great opportunity to let your child’s imagination run wild thinking about their dream pet. Encourage kids to think about what type of pet they would want if they could have any pet in the world. Have older kids write about their pet, explaining why they would want it and what life would be like if they got one. For younger kids, ask them questions about their pet and encourage them to talk about what they would do with it.

Challenge them to come up with answers to the top problems of keeping their pet. Where would you keep a dinosaur? What would you feed a unicorn? This exercise not only encourages them to use their imagination, but helps them to think about responsibility and consequences.

What is your favorite shark book for kids? Do you have any shark activities that you love? Share in the comments!

Get kids excited about reading with these printable shark bookmarks for kids! #sharkbookmarks #printablebookmarks

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64 comments on “Wanted: Pet Shark”

    • That’s awesome! My daughter loves her tub shark toys too. I definitely recommend checking the book out!

  11. Great shark themed activities! With my boyfriend’s obsession with sharks I am sure the baby will learn to love them too.

  21. Love this, have pinned it so that I can come back to it. I think my kids at work would just love this.

  27. The DIY shark painted in blue with all the cut out fishes are so cute. I’ll try to make one for my toddler too for surw he will like it

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