Positives

• There is a fun song for students to sing to remember the features of a fish.
• Students will love showcasing their creativity in constructing the fish.
• This lesson is a great resource to connect science and art.

Additional Prerequisites

• The lesson is also available in Spanish and Chinese.
• The link to the Hudson River Park fish poster is broken. Teachers can find a replacement poster here. 
• Teachers must provide craft supplies, including tape, paper plates, coloring utensils, and construction paper.
• The resource includes two student worksheets and an answer key.
• Students should understand that animals have traits to serve a purpose.

Differentiation

• Younger or ELL students may need additional practice pronouncing the more challenging vocabulary terms such as dorsal, ventral, pectoral, and caudal. 
• Students can share their fish with the class by presenting it, or teachers can display student work as a gallery walk.
• If using the blank fish diagram as an assessment or activity, teachers can give students who struggle with handwriting the option to cut and paste from the word bank instead.
• Teachers can display fish permanently somewhere in the classroom or school.
• Though the Hudson River Park created this lesson for use in New York City classrooms, teachers in other areas can modify it by using images of local fish instead of Hudson River fish.
• Students can discuss why it is important to have many different kinds of fish in an area, and teachers can relate this to biodiversity loss due to climate change.