Free Home School Field Trip and the Life Cycle of Salmon

We are lucky and happen to live near two fish ladders. This is a great free home school field trip that we enjoyed prior to covid. We are so excited that the fish ladder viewing areas are once again open to the public!

Before we went to the fish ladder, I got a few books from the library to build background knowledge about the life cycle of salmon and why the salmon are swimming upstream and returning to their birthplace. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any children’s books or resources about fish ladders (if you know of some, please let me know!) so I focused our studies on the life cycle of salmon since it’s an important species on Earth.

These are great books to read and learn about salmon for kids even if you don’t have a fish leader nearby to visit. I especially enjoyed learning more about the culturally significance of the salmon to Native Americans. One of the tribes in the Pacific Northwest even define themselves as Salmon People. Once again I was not able to find resources or books for kids that discuss the interconnectedness of Native Americans and salmon.

Kids Books to Study The Life Cycle of Salmon

1. Run Salmon Run by Bobs and Lolo

This is a short and sweet book that introduces the basics of salmon and their life cycle in a poetic and gentle text and beautifully illustrated. Best for preschoolers and early elementary children. They even have a sweet song that you can listen to on their web site here www.bobsandlolo.com

2. A book with more information about the life cycle of a salmon, but still simple and easy to follow check out The Bizarre Life Cycle of a Salmon by Mark J. Haraysmiw.

3. For a more in-depth information about the life cycle of a salmon check out this nonfiction book by Bobbie Kalman’s The Life Cycle of a Salmon.

4. Salmon Creek by Annette Lebox is another sweet and poetically written book about the life cycle of a salmon. This book is best for middle to upper elementary children although my high schooler enjoyed it too. This is a narrative story that follows the life a Sumi a pacific salmon. Beautifully written and illustrated, makes for a great bedtime read aloud.

5. Nonfiction and poetic books are great, but my kids love stories best and that’s why we love Salmon Forest by David Suzuki. We love the alliteration he used in the book, “mysteries, merry-go-rounds, and millions of babies.” A great book for middle and upper elementary children. It follows a girl and her father on a fishing trip in the Pacific Northwest and explains to her that she will part of the salmon story and teaches the interconnection of all living things.

6. For the science lover, check out Salmon Matters How a Fish Feeds a Forest. This book describes food webs and how their death brings nutrients to the web of life. Best for upper elementary and middle schoolers.

7. The Salmon Princess: An Alaska Cinderella because I love the Cinderella story and we enjoy reading as many versions of Cinderella stories as we can find! This one definitely puts a unique twist on the favorite fairytale. Best for all ages.

Need an extra cup of coffee? Play one of these videos for you kids and take a few minutes for yourself.

If you want a little old school, watch The Magic School Bus – Goes Upstream Ep. 8

But we preferred Wild Kratts: Alaska – Hero’s Journey  This is a longer episode at 48 minutes if you need a couple of minutes and let the Kratt brothers teach.

For older kids the PBS documentary is very well done – The Lost Salmon

A summary from the PBS web site, “The Lost Salmon, chronicles the plight and potential recovery of the iconic spring chinook salmon of the Pacific Northwest. Faced with extinction in many river systems of the West, a new genetic discovery could aid in their recovery. Once teaming in the millions and a sacrament for the oldest civilizations in the Americas, time is running out for the genetically distinct wild salmon.”

Other resources –

For more lessons and activities check out this free salmon curriculum from NOAA Fisheries called The Incredible Journey. Includes a free digital book, a game and 10 lessons about the life cycle of salmon.

Life Cycle worksheets –

There are a lot of worksheets available online. We liked this cutting and gluing one from Living Life and Learning You do need to subscribe to her mailing list to get it.

Related Activities

Make a model of a watershed: What is a watershed? A watershed is an area of land where all water drains to a common location or waterway. Water moves, or sheds downhill. In some parts of a watershed, water flows. In other parts of a watershed, water is stored. The boundary of a watershed is the high land that surrounds it, like the edge of a bowl. A water shed can be small or very large. For more information about watersheds and making a model watershed you can read this

This is a fun little 5 minute video that explains a watershed.

To make your own watershed – it’s best to do this on a warm day outside. If doing inside, have each or pair of students do it in a roasting pan or bin or dishpan to catch the water.

You can do this with paper or aluminum foil. We used aluminum foil. Have the children bend and fold the aluminum foil to make mountains. If using paper, they can crumble into a ball and then uncrumble it slightly, then use a spray bottle to make precipitation and watch what happens to the water. How many watersheds do they have? Then make a second model and before folding the aluminum foil use washable markers and color on the foil. The color represents pollutants in the environment. Then spray again and watch what happens to the pollutants that were on the land.

Mountain with no pollution.

Added some pollution with washable markers to the foil.

Mountain with pollution.

The pollution after precipitation.

Finish your study with a tasty salmon dinner!

Here’s a two-day study to help you pull everything together. It could easily turn into 3 days. Also, helpful if you want to teach the life cycle of salmon at a co-op. Here’s a pdf version

	Read	Learn	Activity
Day 1	To hook the children’s interests begin with this fun clip of grizzly bears catching salmon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSSPDwAQLXs Read a book about the life cycle of a salmon. I recommend Bobbie Kalman’s book or The Bizarre Life Cycle of a Salmon. Then read one of the poetic books Salmon Creek or Run Salmon Run	Complete a Life Cycle of salmon worksheet. Living Life and Learning   For older kids this reading selection and worksheet	Watch Wild Kratts: Alaska – Hero’s Journey   Or The Magic School Bus – Goes Upstream Ep. 3   For older kids The Lost Salmon
Day 2	Read Salmon Stream and The Salmon Princess	Discuss that salmon need clean water to survive. The land and the area around the river are important to keep the river clean. Watch the watershed video	Watershed Activity – Materials – paper or aluminum foil, spray bottle, washable markers, and tray or pan to catch the water. Crumble or fold the paper/foil to make mountains. Spray water and watch how it moves down along the mountains to a single point. How many watersheds do you have? Do it again this time draw with markers on the paper/foil and it represents pollutants. Spray and watch what happens to the pollutants that are on the land. Where do they end up?