I was originally going to title this post whales and dolphins for kid, because dolphins are cute, and everyone loves whales, they’re so mysterious. Then I started looking at what my kids were ACTUALLY interested in. We didn’t spend all that much time on those animals, but a lot more time on other ocean animals.
Learning about the ocean
I’d start any unit on ocean animals learning about the ocean first because that affects so much of ocean life. Take some time to learn about ocean currents, and then the deep water of the ocean. I’d also say it’s worth taking a look at the different layers of the ocean with this fun craft.
Octopus
From looking at our ocean animals posts, my kids were very interested in octopus. We started out learning about octopus propulsion, how do they move?
Than learn about why an octopus changes colors, this is a great activity for your art loving kids because it involves painting.
Sea cucumbers are vaguely related to octopus, or at least that’s what I’m remembering, I could be completely wrong, and just wanting to show off our fun sea cucumber models.
Whales, dolphins, and other aquatic animals
I think the problem with this topic, is I like it more than the kids, my brain may have been messed with by watching lots of Star Trek IV
We started our study of whales with some whale sounds videos, and then measured how big is a whale and compared it to ourselves.
I’d refer you to all of our sea turtle posts, but I wrote about those yesterday, and I’m sure you already read them then, just in case: Reptile and Amphibians for kids.
I was going to share my kids’ sea animal reports, but in all honesty, they’re just a bunch of proud Mom stuff (For the curious, Batman’s is on manta rays, and Superman’s is on sharks, I didn’t end up posting Princess’ report), and I don’t know it would help you plan much for your own kids. Though you might get a laugh from Batman’s attempt at a manta ray out of recycled materials.
I’ll have to come back later and give you the kids’ projects on shells and various different crustaceans. Those two both seem to have about 10 posts on that topic. I personally find much more than 10 links in a round up post overwhelming, so I’m trying to limit the scope of these units
For all of the posts in this series head on over to Zoology for Kids.
For a great series of posts written by some other awesome homeschooling Moms (including about 3 more series on science) head on over to Summer Hopscotch 2014
I worked at a marine biology camp one summer while I was in college. I even got to swim with sharks! The ocean is a fascinating place.
This would have been my very favourite topic to teach, they are all such interesting and beautiful animals to learn about. Another post full of goodies to come back to when my littles are older!
My daughter would have probably chosen jelly fish. She used to be very interested in them. Great links!