As with the rock unit, this study unit began with a field trip. We were lucky to have a long weekend with Daddy so we took a trip to the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre. It's one of our favorite places. As always, the favorite attraction was the touch pool. On this day the "candy cane" anemone was available for tickling. The pool has all kinds of creatures like urchins, sea cucumbers, anemones, starfish, little crustaceans, etc. I saw this trip as my chance to start talking about ocean life and studying it.
I went home and dug out all my ocean books, ocean stickers, ocean treasures and set up an ocean station. We did a match and identify activity for sharks and whales (yes we do have sharks in our coastal waters). We found a wonderful ocean puzzle from Cobble Hill Toys that is great for identification. Though, I'm so pleased at how much April has absorbed so far. She is able to find and identify the shells of muscles, oysters, and shore crabs.
We finished our unit with a few crafts. We used a dilapidated old egg carton and some pipe cleaners to make some anemones. As we were building them we talked about why anemones are bright colors, what they need their tentacles for and what they eat. We also did some ocean painting; octopus, harbour seal, whales. Watercolors were a wonderful way to illustrate the soft colors of the creatures in our sea. It was a fun and interesting unit for us all.
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