Environmental science for primary students?  Why not?  "Kids Save Shad!"--a choral readers theater--is a shorter simplified version of our three part series "Students Save Shad!" (for older students).  This science script is complete in one script, but is still based on the non-fiction book Let the River Run Silver Again.  Complete with annotated curriculum links for easy lesson plans and unit studies, "Kids Save Shad," is great for primary level readers.  Although this is a simplified version of the story, it still appeals to ESL and struggling students because it's true.  It shows how regular kids can make a difference.

TIME:  a little over 3 minutes    CAST:  3-4+ (3-4 choruses)     TONE:  educational, light   READABILITY:  grade 1.0  (The part of the Experts has the hardest part--probably closer to grade 2.)

Here is an excerpt from this free, environmental Readers Theater script for primary level readers:

Experts:  Today’s kids are helping solve today’s problems.  One of those problems is saving our rivers and fish that live there.  One kind of fish kids are saving is called American shad.

Shad A:  We are shad.  We are a big, silver fish.  We have a row of dark spots on our sides.  But, we won’t show them to you now!

Shad B:  We hatch from eggs in a river.  Then we swim to the ocean.  Three to six years later we return to the same river to lay eggs.

Shad A:   It is a very hard trip.  Some of us get eaten.

Shad B:  Yikes!

Shad A:  But, not ALL of us get eaten.

Shad B:  Oh, good!

Experts:  And, that’s not the only problem.  Shad have had a hard time because of too much fishing and polluted rivers.  Plus, dams often blocked their way back home.

Shad A & B:  Sad shad.  Too bad.

Experts:  Students in schools have helped save shad, though.  They will share their story now.

Students:  First, we were given shad eggs to raise.  The eggs looked like pearls.  Then, they looked like two eyes and a wiggle.

Shad A & B:  Awwww...how cute!

Students:   We had to keep the water cool and clean.  When the baby fish were about five days old we went to the river.  We took buckets of baby fish and cups. 

Shad A & B:  No!  Don’t tell me you were going to DRINK the baby shad fish!

Students:  No, that’s silly.  We dipped our cups in the buckets of baby fish.  And then.....

Shad A & B:  No!  You didn’t plant those babies with corn seeds, did you?

Students:  No, Pilgrims planted corn seeds with fish--not us.

Shad A & B:  Oh, good.

Students:  We dipped our cups in the buckets of baby fish.  And then, we set them free in the river!

Shad A & B:  Hooray!  Freedom!

Experts:  And a few years later, those babies came back to the river! The baby fish had special marks on their ear bones.  Those marks were seen. The baby shad had grown up and come back to lay their eggs.
(Continued...)

***Click on the PDF link below to see the full printable version of the free environmental science script, "Kids Save Shad!"

Download the PDF "Kids Save Shad!", a free environmental Readers Theater script for grades 1, 2, 3, ESL, and families interested in protecting our environment--especially the waterways (e.g., rivers, streams, Chesapeake Bay).