Head for the Ocean
Copyright 2003 -- All Rights Reserved
Remember the first time that you
"heard" the ocean in a seashell, or felt the sand shift from
beneath your feet as the surf washed by? The cry of the gull, the steady
rhythm of the surf on the shore, the sting of salt on your face -- all of
these and more remind us of the tranquility you can experience when seeing
the ocean.
As summer quickly approaches,
the call to the water becomes louder and more appealing to families
everywhere. We think of vacations and heading to the beach, while the
children imagine who will collect the most sea shells, climb to the top of
the lighthouse first, build the biggest sandcastle and kick the surf the
highest! They have such a natural interest in water and swimming and
exploring -- providing wonderful opportunity to try a unit study this
summer without the regular "school year" pressures.
The ocean was the topic of
the very first unit study that I attempted because it was just a short
walk from our door and the children were enamored by the beach and the
water. They have always been so curious about the things we would find or
see on the beach. Using a scope and sequence, I could also see that the
older children needed to cover several of the items that related to the
ocean in their current level of study. I had a new baby with severe colic
that was soothed by long beach walks, two fascinated and eager students
anxious to leave textbooks and busywork behind, and a huge field trip
arena at our doorstep - the Atlantic Ocean!
The study was a great success
the first time around, and it has gotten better every time we have plunged
into new areas of
OCEANS. Usually we pick a topic or two
of interest within one of the studies and work on those topics for about 4
or 5 weeks. We have investigated the ocean floor, the tides and currents,
ocean explorers, whales and dolphin, the food chain and the list goes on
and on. To help you get started, I'm going to choose a topic
and discuss how I would work on the unit at our house.
My children were
first and foremost fascinated with ocean and sea life. They loved to walk
the beach and collect shells, as well as fishing for hours on end just to
"see" what was out there. So, let's choose the marine life portion of an
oceans unit study and see where it takes us!
Where Do I Begin?
I always try to begin a unit
study by asking each child what they'd like to know about the topic at
hand, if they haven't already demonstrated specific interests or mentioned
questions in our daily conversations. We have already determined that we
would investigate sea life, so here are some of the questions that they
had about this topic:
1. What is the biggest animal in the ocean?
2. What kind of animals live in the deepest part of the ocean?
3. How long can a dolphin and whale stay underwater?
4. Where does the Great White shark live?
There, that's four questions
that we can tackle during this travel through the
OCEANS
study. From this point, I would proceed to the study outline and find the
portions that would provide answers to the children's questions as well as
stretching their interest into other applicable areas of the topic.
Choosing Resources
After deciding on the areas
of that we would address, I would start selecting appropriate resources
from the Sea Life list in the References Resources section of the study.
(This list contains numerous books for the various outline sections,
including the grade level suggestions, publisher information, etc.) Here
are some for my children's grade levels that I might choose to investigate
their questions and interests:
Fish,
Shark,
and Whale
all from the Eyewitness Books Series, Grades 4-12. Published by Alfred A.
Knopf, (Subsidiary of Random House), 400 Hahn Rd., Westminster, MD 21157,
800/733-3000.
Let's
Investigate Slippery, Splendid Sea Creatures, by Madelyn W.
Carlisle, (Let's Investigate Series), Grades 3-7. Published by Barron's
Educational Series, Inc., 250 Wireless Blvd., Hauppauge, NY 11788,
800/645-3476.
Don't
Blink Now! Capturing the Hidden World of Sea Creatures, by Ann
Downer, (New England Aquarium Books), Grades 5-8. Published by Franklin
Watts, 5450 Cumberland Ave., Chicago, IL 60656, 800/672-6672.
How Did We Find Out About Life in the Deep Sea?, by Isaac Asimov,
Grades 4-7. Published by Walker & Company, 720 Fifth Ave., New York,
NY 10019, 800/289-2553.
The
Strange Eating Habits of Ocean Creatures, by Jean Sibbald, Grades
4-8. Published by Silver Burdett, Simon & Schuster, Inc., Prentice
Hall Bldg., Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632.
Deep
Sea Vents: Living Worlds Without Sun, by John F. Waters, Grades 5
and up. Published by Dutton Childrens Books, Division of Penguin USA, 375
Hudson St., New York, NY 10014, 212/366-2000.
(Note: For those of you with
a small library or limited books for children, try using the national
Inter-Library Loan (ILL) system to locate books that you need for a unit
study, available through your local library using your library card.
Providing access to national library holdings, the ILL is generally
available through most public libraries, either free of charge or for a
minimal fee.)
We will begin reading through
these - together as a family as well as the children reading and studying
them on their own. In addition to reference resources that will help us
learn more about sea life, I usually select some classic reading material
that we can all enjoy. Looking under Reading Resources, I see that
Moby
Dick by Herman Melville and The
Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway would be good choices to
read together over the summer. During a unit study, the children read
plenty of fiction that relates to the topic, and here are some titles that
they might like from the list:
Trapped
at the Bottom of the Sea, by Frank Peretti, (Cooper Kids
Adventure Series), Grades 4-7. Published by Crossway Books, Division of
Good News Publications, 1300 Crescent St., Wheaton, IL 60187,
800/323-3890.
Island
of the Blue Dolphin, by Scott O'Dell, Grades 3-7. A Dell Yearling
Book, published by Dell Publishing Co., 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036,
800/233-6834.
Lighthouse
Mystery, by Gertrude C. Warner, (Boxcar Children Mysteries
Series), Grades 2-7. Published by Albert Whitman and Co., 6340 Oakton St.,
Morton Grove, IL 60053, 800/255-7675.
Selecting Activities
Now that we have our
reference and reading materials selected, it is time to begin planning
some of the "hands-on fun" from activities included in the
Activities sections. I always try to choose some that are
"pre-done" (coloring books, models, simple projects that require
minimal assembly) as well as some that we do all on our own. From the
resources of pre-done activities:
The
Ocean Book: Aquarium and Seaside Activities for all Ages, by the
Center for Marine Conservation Staff, Grades PreK-6. Published by John
Wiley & Sons, 1 Wiley Dr., Somerset, NJ 08875, 800/225-5945.
The
Marine Biology Coloring Book, by Thomas Nielsen, Grades 7-12.
Published by Harper Collins. Available from Farm Country General Store,
Rt. 1, Box 63, Metamora, IL 61548 800/551-FARM.
Marine Biology coloring books from Dover Publications:
Whales and Dolphins,
by John Green
Sharks of the World,
by Lyn Hunter
Tropical Fish, by
Stefan Bernath
Fishes of the North
Atlantic, by Thomas C. Quirk, Jr.
Grades 3-8. This company publishes a broad range of high quality, detailed
coloring books that are inexpensive and educational for ALL ages. Write to
them and request a free catalog at Dover Publications, 31 East 2nd Street,
Mineola, NY 11501.
Along with these activities,
we would also work on some from the Activities Suggestions section. One of
these recommends using fishing to supplement this study. Whether
freshwater or saltwater fishing, there is so much that can be learned by
spending time out with a fishing pole and a bucket of bait. The successes
of different kinds of bait (natural and man-made), the concept of the food
chain, the battle to catch a fish, as well as all of the fun to be had
while watching life in the water are all part of the fishing experience.
The students can track their progress in fishing over the summer by
keeping a fishing journal - detailing the variety of places that they try,
the types of bait and results, the time of day and other factors. In the
journal, they can also describe their catches, possibly sketching the fish
as well as the anatomy of the fish if they dissect their catches!
Together with reading,
activities, writing, and spelling/vocabulary words, I also try to include
videos in each unit study, to provide other media for learning. Some of
the titles suggested for sea life are:
Really Wild Animals: Deep Sea Dive, by National Geographic Kids
Video, available from National Geographic.
Life in the Sea, by Questar Video. Available from Great Christian
Books, 800/775-5422.
Internet Sites to Complement the Study
And last but not least, I've
learned about the growing importance and phenomenal educational value of
the Internet when working on unit studies. Realizing that there are good
and bad parts of the Internet, as there are with any other resource, I
have spent time searching out "safe" sites that would add value
to the learning experience, and they've been included in each of the new
books. For sea life, here are a few from the Internet Resources section of
OCEANS:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Home Page
http://www.fws.gov/
Australia's On-Line Fish
File
http://www.fishnet.com.au
Smithsonian
Museum of Natural History - Division of Fishes
http://nmnhwww.si.edu/vert/fish.html
NOTE: Amanda has three other unit
studies that you might be interested in when studying the oceans:
Copyright 2003 Amanda Bennett
PLEASE NOTE:
This article is copyrighted, and may NOT be used or
copied without written permission of
Amanda
Bennett. It is NOT in the public domain, and is protected by copyright laws.
Thanks for your cooperation & understanding!
WRITE YOUR OWN UNIT STUDIES & SAVE!
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