Category: Science

Sea Creatures-Sharks & Rays

10/25/2016

Sharks and Rays was one of those chapters the boys couldn't wait to get to. I just love the massive and beauty of the Manta Ray! We hung this cute little guy from our ceiling to add to our "OCEAN" Room.

We started out by watching some super neat videos on Manta Rays. There are a few from "Jonathan Bird's Big Blue World".

Here is one below you could watch:

We then moved onto our note page and folder activity page.

We designed our Manta Ray by hand (you can make a
quick pattern by hand if you need to) and label the parts
that we learned:

Pectoral Fin
Pelvic Fin
Nares
Mouth
Gill Slits
Tail
Dorsal Fin

We glued the back of the Ray onto our first folder page and folded in our Pectoral Fins and folded up the long tail so it all stored nicely into the folder.

The second week we did our notepage and then moved on to our Folder activity on Shark Teeth. We did have a student bring in a variety of shark teeth he had collected. The kids enjoyed passing those around and examining them.

You could also view another video on sharks if there is any time left or have the kids research different sharks. I have added a free shark stationary to use for a fun addition to your writing project.

Below is our second Folder Page for our "Sharks and Rays" Chapter.

We glued 2 standard sized pieces of yellow paper together to make a fold out.
Then we matched up the pictures and descriptions on the Shark Descriptions printout to the box on the Shark's Teeth page.
We then cut out Teeth based on the average size of the ones recorded to have been found.

These are just Average lengths:
Megalodon 7.5 inches
Great White Shark 2.25 inches
Mako Shark 2 inches
Tiger Shark 1.25 inches
Hammerhead Shark .75 inch

Click on the pics or link to download your copy of the Shark Teeth and Descriptions Files.

Enjoy and Many Blessings!

**Just a Note: Our "Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day" Research Journal Notebooking pages are not ready for purchasing or download yet.
I am sorry for any inconvenience.**

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Science-Sea Creatures Part 2: Student Research Notebook

11/8/2015

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The notebooking we chose to use for our Apologia Science class was a combination of many ideas. I do use the Apologia Notebook from time to time but for our main research, we created our own using colored file folders, our own notebooking pages and a 1-inch 3-ring binder.

The cover page was one we created for the kids to personalized themselves. They had a fun time coloring them during our co-op class. We are currently in the process of teaching and making these pages for our research. We have most of them complete but once all of them are finished, we will make them available to our viewers, so stay tuned!

You will need:

1", 3-ring binder
13 colored file folders with chapter name labels
Cover page
Research Sheets
hole punch
Folder Activities (downloads coming soon)

Click HERE to watch the video or click on the video above to see how to make our
Research Journal for the Sea Creatures Class!

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Ocean Zone Bottle

11/8/2015

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This was a fun craft! We made them in our homeschool co-op class and at home! Here are the supplies that you will need:

Empty Plastic Bottle with lid
5 labels with Ocean Zones on them
2 small plastic sea creatures
Packing Table
Thread
Super Glue
Scissors
5 layers of construction Paper (Light Blue, Dark Blue, Purple, Brown, and Black)

Click HERE to see the video on how to make these! A GREAT addition to your
Sea Creatures or Ocean Study!

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Science-Sea Creatures Part 1

11/1/2015

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Science can be a bit scary to teach but it can be so fascinating! For science, we use Apologia! We've used this curriculum since we began homeschooling and it is excellent! Jeannie Fulbright does just an incredible and thorough job with both the outline and the presentation of the curriculum. There are many different "helps" to assist in the class whether its a journaling notebook, lapbook, experiments or just using "Pinterest" for ideas from other families!

Here is the textbook and Journal we use:

Apologia Science is one of the main academic classes we have at our local homeschool co-op. In the past at the co-op, we've used Botany, Astronomy, Zoology, Physical Science and we just keep coming back to it...because it is fantastic! I love that it is written so well and has the "Creation Confirmation" inserts throughout to assure the kids about how Amazing and Intelligent our Creator is. He carefully and precisely made each and every animal.
(some of them are crazy cool too...I especially love those cute manatees)

~This year, grades 1-4 are using Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day, 5-6th are using
Human Anatomy and Physiology, 7th is using General Science and 8th and up are using Biology.~

I am teaching the 3rd Graders Zoology 2 Sea Creatures and it is so fun! I team up with the 2nd and 4th grade teachers (who are super creative and gifted I might add) to put together a fantastic syllabus to follow for the 27 weeks of classes we have. We cover approximately 1 chapter over a 2 week period (so just 2 classes per chapter since we only meet on Fridays) with minimal homework for the kids to do at home. Our classes are PACKED full of fun!

But first, before the amazing study of sea creatures can begin, it's helpful to start collecting fun resources to use during the year.

Here are some books we've collected (using library books are great too...and FREE):

And other neat and fun resources, prizes, and fun class activities. Below is a Melissa and Doug floor puzzle (link is located at the bottom of this post) I found at our local teacher supply store and an Ocean Adventure DVD which talks about the Nature of God and His magnificent design (we are super excited to watch this in the upcoming weeks).

We also collected various stuffed animals, small plastic sea creature figures (we found them on Amazon...check out the link at the bottom of the page) and some super neat stickers that we've used in lots of our class folder activities.

Stay tuned for part 2 and part 3 of Sea Creatures Science where I'll go more in-depth on our class research notebook, folder activities, chapter 1 bottle craft, our walrus craft, and TADPOLES!