Clumsy Crab

🎓 Audience

Education: Grade(s) PK, K, 1, 2, Homeschool/Family, Learning Pod, Library Patrons

 🐾 Topics

Language Arts/English, Literacy, Reading, Science, STEM, Social and Emotional Learning( SEL)

🗂️ Format

• Introduction and Prior Knowledge: Learners are invited to share what they know, what they’ve observed in nature, and what they’re curious to learn about sharks and other marine life. 🫰 We also practice snapping!

• Segment 1 - Story Time: We read Clumsy Crab together. As the story unfolds, learners meet Nipper, a crab with big claws and a bigger heart. Through guided discussion, we explore how he is plays with his friends, what makes him feel different, and how he learns to see his claws in a new way. Along the way, we compare the features and movements of different sea animals, including crabs, octopuses, and fish.

• Segment 2 – Crabby Questions: We play a fun reading comprehension quiz to revisit key moments in the story and encourage recall and reasoning. Then we take a quick crawl through crab diversity using photos and video to show real species.

• Segment 3 - Q&A Session: We wrap up with a live, educator-led Q&A. Learners are encouraged to ask questions about crabs, and how we study and care for marine animals at Mote.

🎯 Objectives

1. Explore how crabs and other sea creatures are adapted to survive in ocean habitats.

2. Engage in a discussion about friendship, self-acceptance, and the diversity of marine animals.

3. Compare different types of crabs and how they differ from other ocean animals.

4. Develop curiosity and confidence in asking questions about crabs and other marine life.

✏️ Standards this program supports

Common Core

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.K.RL.1 – With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. Application: Learners recall events from Clumsy Crab and discuss how the characters react and change during the story.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.3.RL.3 - Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. Application: Learners describe Clumsy and his ocean friends, exploring how their actions help move the story forward.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.1.RL.5 - Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types. Application: Learners compare the fictional elements of Clumsy Crab to nonfiction facts shared in the follow-up discussion about real sharks and their behavior.

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.3.RL.1 – Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. Application: Learners cite evidence from the story to explain how Clumsy Crab's feelings change and how he finds a way to help his friends.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• • 14 - Life Below Water

Lexile Framework

• AD540L

Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS)

• SC.K.L.14.2 – Recognize that some books and other media portray animals and plants with characteristics and behaviors they do not have in real life. Application: Learners identify which parts of Clumsy Crab are pretend, then compare those fictional traits to real facts about sharks shared in the learning segment.

• SC.1.N.1.1 – Raise questions about the natural world, investigate them individually and in teams. Application: Learners ask and answer questions about crab behavior, body parts, and life in the ocean.

• SC.2.L.17.2 – Recognize and explain that living things are found all over Earth, but each is only able to live in habitats that meet its basic needs. Application: Learners discuss how different ocean animals live in different habitats and how each has body parts and behaviors that help them meet their needs.

• SC.3.L.15.1 – Classify animals into major groups according to their physical characteristics and behaviors. Application: Learners classify crabs as crustaceans and compare them with other invertebrates.

• SC.4.L.17.4 – Recognize ways plants and animals, including humans, can impact the environment. Application: Learners discuss how pollution, overfishing, and habitat loss affect crab and what people can do to help protect ocean life.

☑️ Evaluation Link

When answering these questions, please focus on the quality of the content and not the technology. You can answer anonymously. After clicking Did the program take place?, choose if you are you an Educator or Parent.

• cilc.org/ContentProvider/Evaluation

Nouns

Words that name animals, body parts, places, or things.

• adaptation: A body part or behavior that helps an animal live in its environment.

• animal: A living creature that moves, breathes, and eats.

• aquarium: A place where an aquatic animal is cared for and where people can learn about it.

• bubble: A round shape made of air in water.

• claw: The pincer of a crab or other sea creature, used for grabbing or defense.

• crab: A sea animal with a round shell and claws.

• decomposer: A living thing that breaks down dead plants and animals. Crabs can be decomposers.

• exoskeleton: A hard outer covering that protects the body of animals like crabs and lobsters.

• fish: An animal that lives in water, has gills, and usually has scales.

• fins: Flat body parts that help a fish or sea animal swim.

• friend: Someone you like and enjoy spending time with.

• habitat: The place where an animal lives and finds everything it needs to survive.

• idea: A thought or plan about how to do something.

• invertebrate: An animal without a backbone.

• jellyfish: A soft, see-through sea animal with long stinging parts.

• knots: Tangled or twisted pieces of rope, string, or seaweed.

• ocean: The large, salty body of water that covers most of Earth.

• octopus: A soft-bodied sea animal with eight arms.

• plant: A living thing that grows in soil or water and makes its own food.

• question: Something you ask when you want to learn more.

• seaweed: A plant-like organism that grows in the ocean.

• shell: A hard outer covering that protects some sea animals.

• tentacles: Long, flexible arms on sea animals like jellyfish or octopuses.

• turtle: A reptile with a hard shell that lives in the sea or on land.

• vertebrate: An animal with a backbone.

• water: The liquid all living things need to survive.

Verbs

Words that describe actions.

• rescue: To save someone or something from danger.

• shuffle: Moved slowly or by dragging feet or body parts.

• slice: To cut something, like using a claw to slice seaweed.

• swim: To move through water using fins or arms.

Adjectives

Words that describe or give more information about a noun.

• clumsy: Moving in a way that is not graceful or careful.

• sideways: Moving to the side, like how crabs walk.

• tangled: Twisted or knotted together in a messy way.

• underwater: Happening below the surface of water.

Play Clumsy Bingo

Play virtual bingo using a computer, smartphone or tablet during your program to focus on key concepts and vocabulary.

• Online

• On paper/PDF

🌐 Websites

• Mote Animal Encyclopedia: Crabs

📚 Books & Publications

• Clumsy Crab by Ruth Galloway

  • Internet Archive

🖥️ Videos

• Shape of Life: crab molting