Ocean Learning: Week One (Pacific Ocean)
We’re excited to launch a new learning at home series by one of our Kid Lab families who spend their days homeschooling a rising kindergartner and a joy-filled preschooler. This month, they have linked their homeschool theme with our ocean theme. Follow along as we learn about the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, create sand and shell terrariums, sand dollar shortbread cookies, and finish with diagramming kelp forests and learning about the Arctic Ocean.
We start off the ocean theme by learning about the Pacific basin. Our first hands-on activity involved a batch of no-cook play dough, a brand new Safari TOOB set of Pacific animals and a collection of hand-me-down shells. The play dough was tinted with a turquoise gel coloring after the play dough was mixed up to get nice swirls of color. We rolled the play dough, made impressions with the shells, admired the swirling blue wave patterns, listened to the sound of the ocean by putting conch shells to our ears, and even tasted our fingers after touching the salty dough (reminding the youngest not to actually eat the dough!).
While the preschooler was busy with letter beads and clay moulds, I opened up some reference materials for our pre-K student. We looked through a couple visual dictionaries, an awesome lift-the-flaps book from Usborne and a children's atlas to locate different parts of the Pacific. We especially loved talking about Hawaii and Japan, since the kids have done learning units on both in the past.
Later in the week, we looked at a watercolor of seashells done by a family friend and used a big magnifying glass to see the details. We then worked with chalk pastels to recreate Pacific wavescapes that look really similar to watercolors. To do it yourself, just tear 5-6 strips of pastel art paper and scribble a different shade of blue onto each one. Then, lay one colored strip at a time across the short edge of a fresh sheet of paper and use a facial tissue to 'wipe' the color down onto the page. Each time you remove a strip of colored paper, you'll reveal a new layer of color and you can work your way down the page until you are satisfied. Definitely a project for kiddos aged 5 and up!
To supplement our creative play, we've read South by Daniel Duncan, which explores ideas of loneliness and connection at sea, and has colorful illustrations and sweet, soothing text. We also love The Antlered Ship by Dashka Slater. The main character is a lot like a little person in our family who has a lot of questions about the world, including ones about finding friends. We also received a copy of The Boy and the Ocean from our children's grandmother. This full-hearted book is full of lush painted images of a boy exploring his spiritual connection with ocean, mountains, and sky.
If you try these ocean-themed activities, we’d love to see. Tag us on Instagram (@kidlabraleigh) or leave a comment below.
About the author:
We are a f/t homeschooling family who spend our days learning with a twice exceptional (2e) rising kindergartener and a joy-filled preschooler. Our free range curriculum is mostly play-based and also incorporates reading, music lessons, art classes, carpentry, cooking and time on our outdoor climbing wall.