Oceans part 2

We are continuing our unit on Oceans this week and we have been very busy.

Learning about the letter 'O'.

Some pre-writing...I notice a while back that B was making circles, so I figured if he can make a circle, he can make an 'O'. I know he's no where near writing, just thought he would like the tracing.

Getting the fish to the coral reef. A little more pre-writing.

Measuring ocean animals...using goldfish crackers!

Reviewing our shapes & colors. This is a 24 piece puzzle, he put it together by himself!

Working on finger dexterity and color matching.

Some more color matching while fishing.

Opening up a treasure box.

B was so excited to figure out what was in here...I think he was sort of disappointed when it turned out to be

Stars for our graphing game. Which by the way, he was NOT into.

However he was very into this trio. It's a set of the fish food chain.

He liked to have the shark gobble up the smaller fish.

While we did a lot of math and writing activities, we also had some fun with art and our imaginations.

 We finger painted to create an ocean.

Then colored some cupcake papers, added some strands of tissue paper and we got.... 

Jellyfish

Daddy & B even made fishing poles from sticks & twine. B came up with the idea that he needed to fish for sharks. The 'sharks' were leaves from our tree.

We even turned a cup, some paper, googly eyes and a pipe cleaner into a

Whale...isn't he cute! I got the idea from a picture I saw in an Oriental Trading magazine.

We used different circle shapes to make bubbles.

The toilet paper tube worked best for cleaner circles, but for smaller kids the noodle would work great.

We also read several books on Ocean Animals, a lot were science related with pictures and facts like...

 

but we did have a few fun ones, like...

There is SO much to learn about the ocean and all the wonderful and strange animals that live in it. I see this unit making a reappearance next summer!

Sea World and Ocean animals

The ocean...one of my favorite places, so I'm sure the love of it will be passed on to B. If I had a chance to live any where, I'd find a place on the shore. There is just something about the ocean, the waves, the smell of the sea, sand between your toes and all of the thousands of animals and plants that live near and in the ocean. While it's all very relaxing, there is so much to learn about the ocean. We are spending two weeks on oceans, because there is SO much to learn; plus we've been a little busy, so we need some extra time.

Sorting animals that live in the ocean and on land.

Playing with lots of ocean animals.

Cute little book where B colored the animals.

One of our learning tray activities. Yes, he circled by himself.

We made sea stars! First he cut out a pre-traced star.

Then spread a little glue.

Next B poured some sand (from our sand box) on the glue.

Then he shook his art tray around to get the sand all over the star.

B's sea star, isn't it cute.

Our basket of discovery animals.

B loves making the shark swish his tail back and forth; not up and down like dolphins or whales.

*Funny note: our cat loves the shark too,

she is often sneaking over to the basket and dragging the shark out to wrestle with it.

Mid week we also got to experience ocean animals up close at Sea World's Home Schooling Day. Can I just say how much I LOVE being a Home Schooler's Mom!!! The world really is our classroom.

We went with our friends, Mrs. M and her little girl E & Mrs. C and little man S. This was the best picture I got of all three of them...they were excited to see the fish.

Petting the dolphins.

B trying to touch a dolphin.

He never quiet made it, once he saw the teeth inside one he decided it might bite him.

 After many years of visiting Sea World, I finally got to pet one. They are like a cold, wet inner tube.

Watching the stingrays and fish in the coral reef.

Penguins, we got to watch feeding time. It was a blur of black & white with bubbles.

Sea Lion show, not the normal one you'd see on a visit. This was all educational, we learned the differences between seals and sea lions. We even learned how they train the animals and got to see a few that are just learning the signals.

It's a 'sea' of home schoolers. ;)

 I know it was a lame pun, but look at how many there are!

Dolphin and Beluga show: also not the traditional show.

 Beluga's are called sea canaries because they are so vocal, although they don't have vocal cords!

They can also mimic sounds.

Pacific White Sided Dolphins can swim up to 25mph and are known for their acrobatics in the wild. Did you know that dolphins have a sweet tooth...they like to eat whipped cream and grapes!

Haley the dolphin, spraying the crowd.

Sea World also has a lot of bird species. This is a macaw, who can live to be over 80 years old.

Macaws in flight.

We had a lot of fun on this trip and are looking forward to next years visit to Sea World. For now though, we'll be spending another week learning about ocean animals. Look for that post soon.