Ocean Life Unit
Dive right in and learn about the ocean with us!
We will read the book The Rainbow Fish and talk about what makes a good friend.
We will read the book Swimmy and do a group art project by sponge painting many little fish onto a large piece of paper to look like "Swimmy". First graders will do a writing project to go along with this story/picture.
Our class will discuss the importance of not polluting the ocean waters.
We will look at some real barnacles and read a story about a barnacle that lives in the ocean.
As a science experiment, we will make an ocean in a bottle. To do this you will need to fill a plastic bottle one half full of water and one half full of baby oil. Add a few drops of blue food coloring. Next add a small plastic fish that will float and if desired some sand and small shells. When the bottle is tilted back and forth it will make waves. When I did this I used a Coke bottle.
We will practice counting with goldfish crackers. (Parents, please send some in!). We will also eat these for snacks.
We will share interesting sea shells or other items that the children may have collected from a trip to the beach. If you are bringing these on the school bus, please remember to pack them in your
backpack so that they won't get broken.
The following is a fun activity for pre-schoolers. Add some foam alphabet letters to your water table or any tub filled with water. Allow students to fish the letters out with a net and see if they can name each one.
We will set up a class aquarium. An inexpensive, easy aquarium is simply a goldfish in a bowl with some brightly colored gravel.
Here is another fun activity. Create starfish rubbings by cutting several pieces of sandpaper into various sizes of starfish shapes. Show the children how to place the starfish pattern under a piece of newsprint paper and rub the surface with the side of a peeled crayon.
whale above to hear killer whale sounds
