Oceans Day 8 -Crustaceans

Crustaceans (Crabs & Barnacles)

Read: Pages 42-43 in Oceans by Johanna Rizzo.

Discuss:

Crabs are crustaceans. Crabs have 10 legs, six for walking, 2 for swimming, and 2 for eating. They walk sideways. Crabs have to feelers called antenna and to eyes at the end of the stalks. There are almost 5,000 different kinds of crabs in the world. Most species of crabs are true crabs but about 500 species are hermit crabs. Hermit crabs use other animals shells for protection. Most crabs are omnivores, they eat plants and meat. Crabs are invertebrates; which means that they are animals without a backbone. Instead they have an exoskeleton; which is an outer shell that provides support and protects them from predators. Crabs breathe underwater using gills, but land crabs can breath air.

 Crab Walk

Crabs walk sideways.  Have your child sit on the ground and put his hands behind him.  Then try to walk on all fours sideways.

 Summer Sentences

I printed out the Summer Sentences and cut apart the words.  J read each word and then tried to put them into a sentence.

 Then he wrote the sentence down with a capital and period.

 He really enjoyed this activity.

Paper Plate Crab

Discuss:

How many legs does the crab have? 10 legs  A crab’s legs serve different purposes: six legs are for walking, two are for swimming, and the claws are for eating.

Materials:

• Paper Plate
• Red Construction Paper
• Red Paint
• Paint Brush
• Googly Eyes
• Glue

Directions:

1. Paint the entire back of the paper plate red. Set aside to dry. 
   
2. Cut out eight triangles for the crab’s legs. Draw two claw shapes on red paper and cut those out too. 
   

1. Glue the legs and claws to either side of the plate.
2. Draw two very thin rectangles for your child to cut out (the width of your tiny googly eyes)
3. Glue each rectangle to the top of the plate. Glue one googly eye to the top of each rectangle. Bend up the rectangles after they dry.
   
   
    
   
   

 Pop-up Barnacle

 We learned a bit about barnacles with the Pop-up Barnacle craft.

  

Hermit Crab House

Read: A House for a Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

Materials:

• Print out a Hermit Crab Outline
• Small Paper Plate
• Googly Eyes
• Red Crayon
• Water colors
• Paint brushes
• Pom-poms
• Star or fish stickers
• Pipe Cleaners
• Glue
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Color the hermit crab’s body with red crayon.
   
2. Watercolor paint the background blue and green.
   
3. Cut a spiral in the paper plate and then glue the plate over the shell part in the drawing. 
   
4. Decorate the shell with gold stars (sea stars), pom poms (sea urchins), pipe cleaner (coral), and fish stickers.
   
   
5. Add googly eyes with glue and let dry.
   
   
   

Hermit Crab Writing

 I used the Hermit Crab Writing printout to write a story about a hermit crab.

Drawing a Crab
J drew a Crab on pages 6 from It's Fun to Draw Sea Creatures by Mark Bergin.