Oceans Day 9 -The Beach

The Beach

Read: Clams all Year by Maryann Cocoa-Leffler

Discuss: Walking along a beach you can find lots of different kinds of shells that have been washed up. The shells once belonged to animals.

Paper Place Beach

Materials:

• Paper Plate
• Blue Tissue Paper
• Sand
• Sea Shells
• Construction Paper
• Glue
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Glue sand onto the bottom half of the plate for the beach.
   
2. Glue the blue tissue paper to the top half of your paper plate for the ocean.
   
3. Glue a few small shells to the beach.
4. Cut a sail boat, beach umbrella, fish, shovel and pail out of construction paper and glue them on.
   
   
   

 Ocean Riddles
I had these Ocean Riddles in my files.  J liked to figure them out.

 
 

Beach Pudding

Materials:

• Butterscotch Pudding
• Graham Crackers
• Blue Sugar Sprinkles
• Paper Umbrella
• Teddy Grahams
• Shark or Fish Gummies
• Fruit Roll-ups (for a beach towel)
• Peachy-O's Gummies (for an inner tube)
• Clear Plastic Cup

Directions:

1. Make pudding according to directions and place it in a few little cups.
2. Crush up the graham crackers in a plastic baggie.
3. Use a spoon to cover half of the pudding with blue sugar sprinkles (for the water) and the other have with the graham cracker crumbs (for the beach).
   
4. Cut a small rectangle from the fruit roll up for a beach towel and place it in the sand.
5. Place Teddy Graham on the beach towel and add the umbrella.
   
6. Add a Peachy-o gummy for the inner tube and put a Teddy Graham in the water too.
7. Add some fish gummies to the water.
   
   
   
   

Sandpaper Sandcastle

Materials:

• Sandpaper
• Markers
• Scissors
• Craft Stick
• Construction Paper

Directions:

1.  Draw a sandcastle on the sandpaper.

2.  Cut out the sandcastle.

3.  Cut a flag out of the construction paper and glue it to the craft stick, then glue the craft stick to the top of your castle.

 

Sea Shells in the Sand

I gave J a jar of sea shells to play with in the sand by the play ground.

  

Sea Shell Addition

Materials:

• Sand
• Sea Shells
• Black Marker

Directions:

1. Write a number between 0 and 10 on the bottom of each shell and bury the shells in the sand.
2. Child chooses 2 shells and writes the addition combination with his finger in the sand.
   
   
   
   

Observe a Shell

I had this packet for shell observation in my files.  J had fun doing some shell science.

 Listening to the shell.

 Measuring the shells.

 

Sand Dollar Fives

Discuss:

Sand dollars have 5 holes, and a 5 point star. They are hard and spiny shaped like a coin. They live on sandy sea floors about 30-40 feet under water. Sand dollars partly bury themselves under the sand with an edge poking out. If you break open a dead sand dollar you will find many hard white pieces that were the sand dollars teeth. Their hard skin is made of calcium carbonate plates. The bottom side is where the mouth is. They have tiny tube feel that are used as gills. The holes on the top side are for reproduction. They eat tiny particles of food that floats in the water.

Materials:

• Sand dollars (real or paper)
• Smaller sea shells (or dry beans)

Directions:

1. Make a number line by place sea shells in a line for numbers 1-4.
2. Place a sand dollar next in the line for number 5.
3. Then more sea shells for numbers 5-9.
4. And another sand dollar for number 10, etc..
5. After you have built your number line ask addition and subtraction problems like “what is 10+3? or what is 2 less than 5?)
   
    

Paper Plate Oyster

Materials:

• 2 Small Paper Plates
• Paint pink and blue
• White Pom-pom
• Scissors
• Glue

Directions:

1. Paint the back of one paper plate blue.
2. Cut the second paper plat in half and paint the back parts pink. Let them both dry.
3. Bend the gray on in half so the painted part is on the outside.
4. Glue the pink parts inside of the folded plate.
5. Glue the white pom-pom pearl inside the oyster.
   
   
   

Painting a Sun Catcher

I found this palm tree sun catcher clearenced at the end of the summer.  J likes to paint them, but this time he decided to try glitter glue on it.  It turned out nice.

 

Zuma Beach

When we were on the west coast we spent a day playing at the beach.

 Our little family!

 Crab

 Lobster

 Dolphin

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.

Oceans Day 7 -Marine Reptiles

Marine Reptiles (Sea Turtles)

Read: Pages 34-35 in Oceans by Johanna Rizzo.

Discuss: Sea turtle are large turtles that spend most of their life in the sea. Most sea turtle species are endangered. Sea turtles are reptiles so they are cold-blooded with scaly skin. They are very strong simmers and good divers too. They have 4 flipper legs and a shell that is attached to their backbone, but they cannot pull their head or legs into their shells. Sea turtles can be 2-6 feet long and weigh from 75 to 1900 pounds. Adult female sea turtles come to the beach to lay eggs. They lay up to 200 soft-shelled eggs in the sand. When the baby turtles hatch they immediately head for the water, but many baby turtles are eaten by predators. Only about 1% off the baby turtles will reach adulthood.

Paper Plate Turtle

Materials:

• Paper Plate
• Green and Brown Paint
• Green Construction Paper
• Google Eyes

Directions:

1. Paint the back of the paper plate green.
   
   
    J wanted to add texture by blotting his brush up and down.

1.  Trace 4 feet patterns, 1 head pattern and 1 tail pattern to the green paper, and cut out. 
   
2. Glue paper pieces to the bottom of the plate. 
   
   
   
3. Let it dry and then add brown designs for the turtle shell. 
   
   
    Glue on google eyes and draw a smile.
   
   
    Write a fact about a sea turtle on the back of your sea turtle.
   
   
   
   Drawing a Sea Turtle
   J drew a Sea Turtle on pages 30 from It's Fun to Draw Sea Creatures by Mark Bergin.
   
   
   Sea Turtle Cup Cakes
   Materials:
4. Cupcakes
5. Frosting
6. Peachy-O Gummies
7. Gumdrop candies (red and green)
8. Spearmint Leaves candies
9. Mini chocolate chips
10. Toothpick

Directions:

1. Frost the cupcakes.
2. Slice off and discard the bottom half of a red gumdrop.
3. Place the gumdrop top on the center of a Peachy-O Gummie to create a turtle shell. Set the shell on top of the cupcake.
4. For fins, slice a Spearmint Leaves candy in half. Then use an oval fondant cutter to cut each half into two pieces, as shown. Use the outer pieces for the front fins and the inner pieces for the hind fins.
5. For the head, use a toothpick to poke eye holes in the sides of a green gumdrop. Then press a mini chocolate chip into each hole, using a dab of white icing to help hold it in place. Set the head in place.

Read: One Tiny Turtle by Nicola Davies while they eat.