Kindergarten, Science, Week 25

Over the weekend we went to the local aquarium to look and touch the sea creatures.

This week we

• read about day 5 from The Creation
• read books about the sea and
• looked at our collection of sea shells. K. really enjoyed this, so we did it a few days.
• We talked about which shell we would like to live in if we were Hermit Crab, then when we outgrew it which would we like, etc.
• We also played store, selling the shells to each other for 1¢ each, even having to figure out how much change to give from a nickle or dime.
• If you don't have shells, you can usually find baskets of them at craft supply stores (that is where most of ours came from).
• painted the background of our sea mural
• I cut a 4 - 5 foot section of 18-inch high poster paper
• We painted brown along the bottom for the sand (I only had white, red, and green tempera paint, so I mixed some red and green, but it was too dark, so I added some white, and it turned out pretty well). I had some burnt sienna acrylic paint and put streaks of it on the brown tempera. While the paint was still wet, we sprinkled silver glitter on it.
• After the "sand" was dry, we used blue finger paint to make the water, leaving some white at the top of the page for those mammals that will need air.
• When it was all dry I stapled the mural in K.'s room.

Here are the books we read this week:

• Oozey Octopus: A Tale of a Clever Critter by Suzanne Tate
• Great Sharky Shark: A Tale of a Big Hunter by Suzanne Tate
• Danny & Daisy: A Tale of a Dolphin Duo by Suzanne Tate
• Sandy Seal: A Tale of Sea Dogs by Suzanne Tate
• Katie K. Whale: A Whale of a Tale by Suzanne Tate
• Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle
• Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean by Arthur Dorros
• What Lives in a Shell? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
• A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
• Across the Big Blue Sea by Jakki Wood
• Nature Hide & Seek: Oceans by John Norris Wood

For older children, Pagoo by Holling Clancy Holling would be good.

If you want ideas for projects, The Ocean Book: Aquarium and Seaside Activities and Ideas for All Ages by the Center for Marine Conservation has a lot of good stuff.

You will also find some good things in Oceans by Teacher Created Materials, Inc. (TCM 284). It is based on the story "The Crab that Played with the Sea" a Just-So Story by Rudyard Kipling and the book The Cay by Theodore Taylor. It is for intermediate grades, and when K. is older we will probably use it.