Swimmy and Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni

Swimmy is one of my favorite picture book stories. It is about a little black fish who lives in a school of little red fish. One day, his brothers and sisters all get eaten up by a big, mean tuna fish. He is alone and sad. So, he swims and sees all of the fun things in the ocean and eventually finds a new school of fish to join. Together, they come up with a plan to keep them safe as they swim in the ocean.

It is written by an amazing author names Leo Lionni! As I looked up the story, Swimmy, online, I came across another one of his books called Fish is Fish about a minnow and tadpole that are friends and each grow up to be something different.

Both books are perfect for our unit on oceans. So, I read them both to your preschoolers and, as expected, they loved them as much as I did.
I found a DVD of Leo Lionni's stories at the library.

The preschoolers loved it!! They sat like little statues through the short 5 minute movies that retell the two stories we had read in class. They even wanted to watch others that we hadn't read, like Cornelius and Federick. So, I promised if we had time at the very end, we'd watch more. What motivation for them! They were great and helped clean up, so we'd have time for the story/movies. I love to see my preschoolers excited about books! It helps them to appreciate the fun make believe world that lives inside the pages of books. When you go the library next, look up Leo Lionni. Your preschooler will remember his books and love sharing them over again with you.

(Some of the movies are on you tube, but the Swimmy ones weren't in English. I'm sure there are others on there that are in English and if you are more patient then me, you can search for them. They would be fun to watch together.)