The Rainbow Fish

Title: The Rainbow Fish
Author and Illustrator: Marcus Pfister
Genre: Modern Fantasy

Summary:
This popular children's book tells the story about the Rainbow Fish, who is the most beautiful fish in the sea. The Rainbow Fish is very proud of his beauty and refuses to play with all of the other "ordinary" fish. One day a small fish asks the Rainbow Fish for one of his beautiful scales. The Rainbow fish is dismayed by the request and rudely refuses to give the small fish anything. The small fish is so taken aback by the Rainbow Fish's rudeness, that he tells all the other fish and they decide to completely ignore the Rainbow Fish. The Rainbow Fish then becomes lonely and sad that no one is paying attention to his beauty anymore. Since he was now both the most beautiful and the loneliest fish in the sea, the Rainbow Fish went to his only friend, the Starfish, for advice. The Starfish listened to his friend's problems and told him the only one who could help solve his predicament was the wise Octopus. The Rainbow Fish then decides to seek out the Octopus for his wisdom. Read this book to find out the advice the Rainbow Fish receives and whether or not he takes it.

Making the Connection:
This book is a great way to facilitate discussion in your class about the importance of sharing and the down falls of being vain/proud. After reading this book with your class a really fun activity would be to make a class rainbow fish. You would start by giving each student a scale. On their scale student's would be asked to write one thing that makes them special. They would then decorate their scale and attach it to a large fish that you had pre-made. The end result would be a fish that was made up of all the little things that your student's think make them special. This story could also be great to use when beginning to teach a science unit on oceans/ocean life. It is important to try to make connections over all the disciplines that you teach, and The Rainbow Fish would be a great way to achieve that.