Oceans and Pirates

Here in Alberta, most of my students have never seen the ocean. This unit catches their intrest, and they dive right in! (pardon the pun)

Books

Once again, I made the trip back to the library without writing down which books I used. The kids' favourite was the Magic Tree House book Dolphins at Daybreak. We read a chapter each circle time, and they wouldn't let me get away with missing it!

Activities

Math

  • Fish Patterns - I bought a fish stamp and stamped a row of fish in a fish shape book. There was 4 pages, each with 8 stamps on it. The whole book was in the shape of a fish. The kids coloured the stamps in a pattern.

  • How big was a whale - We read a book about how big whales were. We read how many meters a blue whale was, and then we counted as I wrapped yarn around a meter stick that many times. Out in the school yard, we unwrapped the yarn to see how far it would stretch - voila, a blue whale. A learning note - the yarn tangled up on me a lot, I would recommend using ribbon or another material that won't knot up easily.

    Science

  • Float and Sink - The kids had a variety of object. They had to guess if it would float or sink, and then test their guess in the water table. I had a big chart on written on a shower curtain, one column for sink and one for float. They then put the object onto the column it belongs in. After they were done, they copied the chart onto a sheet of paper, drawing pictures of the objects.

  • Oil spill demo - I poured oil into the water table. Then we dipped a feather in it and talked about what would happen to the birds in the ocean. We tried to clean the feather off. Would the birds have trouble too?

    Other Fun Stuff

  • Treasure hunt - I buried 'treasure' in the sand table and gave the kids a list of all the stuff. They checked off the pictures as they found them.

  • Pirate ship - I cut out a large carboard box to make a ship. I added a large pirate flag, some hats, pirate clothes, an eye patch, and a treasure box. Voila - our house center is now a jolly pirate ship.

  • Sock fish - Finally, a use of all those unmatched socks! We used fabric crayons to draw on colourful fish scales, stuffed them with newspaper, and tied the end to make a back fin.

  • More fish - I cut out huge coloured construction paper fish. The students sponge painted one side of two fish. We stapled them together, stuffed with newspaper, and hung them from the roof.

  • Treasure map and island - the student used dough to make an island. I baked them to harden the islands, then the students painted them (we added hills, lakes, forests). I had pre-burned some paper, to make the edges look old. The students drew their islands onto the map, with an X to mark the treasure spot. They then painted the map with tea bags to make it look old.

  • Lifesize pirates - I hung a large sheet of paper in the art area. The student drew a large pirate, and then painted it to look like a pirate. Some even added a parrot on their shoulder! I cut out the pirate people and hung them around the classroom.

    Songs and Poems

  • Baby Beluga musical boats - each student was given a hula hoop, one student was declared the shark (no hoop). Everyone swam around while the music was playing, when the music stopped the shark tried to each the swimmers, they were safe once they got into a hoop boat. Everytime we took away a hoop, and they had to share the remaining hoops. Cooperation was essential, or they would all fall out of the boat and the shark would get them! If the shark caught them, they became a shark.

  • 5 Little Sea Animals (this fingerplay is at school, I'll post it as soon as I remember to bring it home!)

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