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Method
Students listen to a story and watch a video, then color, cut and paste the salmon life cycle in order.

Subjects: Art, Science, Language Arts.
Duration: One to two class periods
Group Size: Large or small
Grade: K - 2

Objectives:
  • Students will be able to list the salmon life cycle stages in order.
  • Students will be able to list three threats that salmon face throughout their lives
  • Students will understand the important role native fish play in aquatic food chains throughout their life cycles.

Materials Needed:

Alaska Content and Performance Standards
Science:
A-14: Understand:
a. the interdependence between living things and their environments.
b. that the living environment consists of individuals, populations, and communities;
c. that a small change in a portion of an environment may affect the entire environment (interdependence)
A-15: Use science to understand and describe the local environment

Reading
2 a.Comprehend literal meaning from text.
b. Use a variety of strategies to support comprehension, including predicting, questioning, rereading,and monitoring own comprehension.
4 a. Retell or dramatize a story after reading it.
b. Restate information after reading a text.

Background:
The salmon life cycle is famous in the fish world and justifiably so. The odds against the survival of a fish from egg to spawning are huge. The epic journey from the spawning grounds to the sea and the return to spawn in the same spot years later is also a remarkable feat.

Salmon and other native fish play an important role in maintaining the health and diversity of Alaska's aquatic ecosystems. Fish occupy many levels in aquatic food chains throughout their lives. Salmon eggs, newly hatched alevin, and fry are important food for other fish, birds, and aquatic insects. Adult fish serve as food for bears, eagles, mink, otter, other fish, and humans. Fish carcasses release accumulated nutrients to restart the food chain and nourish plant life in the riparian zone.

Procedure
Watch the video, Birth of a salmon or some other film that discusses the salmon life cycle. Read the book, Swimmer or a story like it that illustrates the salmon life cycle to the class. As each life cycle stage is discussed, show the students a picture to reinforce that image. At the end of the book, discuss the life cycle stages. Ask the students to remember the story and brainstorm a list of the dangers the fish encounter at each stage.

The list of threats could include any of the following:
Egg Stage: Flooding that dislodges eggs from the redd; silt from bank development that crushes or suffocates eggs; crushing eggs by driving or walking through the redd; vulnerability to oil, gas spills, or other stream pollution; eggs are consumed by birds, insects, and other fish.
Alevin: Similar dangers and predators to the egg stage.
Fry: Eaten by many animals including pike, sheefish, other salmon, kingfishers, mergansers, and terns.
Smolt: Eaten by ocean fish, seals and sea lions when they reach the sea; they can become trapped behind beaver dams or flood debris during migration.
Adults: Eaten by humans, whales, sharks, sea lions; vulnerable to oil spills and other ocean pollution.
Spawners: Eaten by humans, bears, eagles, wolves, etc. They decompose, and release nutrients when they die.

Color, cut out and paste the life cycle worksheet

Extensions:

  • Have the students act out the life cycle stages.
  • Color the life cycle sheets provided and make them into a book, or draw your own pictures.
  • Have the students write a story from the viewpoint of a salmon describing its life.

Text and graphics by USFWS staff
Last modified 18 January, 2006