Ocean Unit Study

We are having such a wonderful time with this unit study and the kids are learning so much!

I am amazed at what we have completed this first week!  (It is going to be a two week unit).  We are using  Hands of a Child  lap books; Ocean Habitats for Anastasia and Under the Sea for the other 3.  This is the first time I have used thier project packs for all four at the same time and I love the way the two work together and I can do age appropriate activites for all.

Of course I have to add more to it ! The units themselves are not lacking I just always keep searching for more info and lessons.  I just need to know when to stop!! 

I have an inflatable globe (ball) that we tossed around the first day learning the names of the oceans.  They loved that!

We are also making the mural from learningpage.com

It's all colored now we need to add the animals as we learn about them.

Also on that site they have great themed worksheets so I printed off the PreK and 1st grade ones put them in a folder and Savannah and Joshua work on them during workbox time.

My favorite activites this week have been the crafts and we did quite a few:

They made an Ocean Collage picture.  We took blue construction paper, yarn, and green paint.  They dipped the yarn in the paint and laid it on their paper then gently folded the paper.  This made it look like seaweed in the water. Then they glued on different ocean animals.

I just realized I didn't take a picture of them completed yet.

Joshua wanted to make a notebook page showing the food chain in the ocean.  He thought that was really cool.  Anastasia is learning about the different layers of the ocean and what lives where.  She is drawing those layers and writing about them.  (She doesn't want me to take a picture until it is all done.)

Story Time:

We read "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister and the kids created their own Rainbow fish complete with it's own shiny scale.

(Joshua's fish was out swimming somewhere in the house and couldn't be located for the picture!)  We made these 3D like and are going to hang them up.  We stuffed the middle with newspaper.

We also read "Starfish" by Edith Thacher Hurd.  The kids glued on Cherrios to their starfish to give it some fun texture.

Now for my favorite book this week.....I am a huge Eric Carle fan but had never read "A House For a Hermit Crab" even with Anastasia having hermit crabs we just missed this book.  It was so much fun to read!!  It follows the time line of the months of the year and the hermit crab looks for a new house.  He finds his shell but it is plain so he goes along the ocean floor and finds different things to add to his house till it is all decorated.

So the kids sponge painted their own "shell" (paper plate) made a hermit crab and then added the objects to it.  I printed them off and some were in color and some they colored.  They cut and glued them on.  These turned out so cute!!

If you want more specific on any of these crafts just ask I would be glad to share.