The Ocean

The girls are fishing with magnetic poles for the many different ocean inhabitants, with scarves representing the ocean waters.  Some of the small pieces on the scarves were magnetic while others were not.  The children had to share space and the fishing poles. As they  wiggled their poles onto the magnetic fish, we heard lots of conversation and advice!

This time we are fishing at snack.  Pretzel rods, cream cheese with cheerios and raisins as the "catch".

What about the children who didn't like cream cheese?  Jake and Saul did some great problem solving.  Jake carefully balanced that cheerio right on the edge of his pretzel....we have no idea how he maneuvered it into his mouth!  Saul bit into the pretzel so he'd have a sharp edge and then fished his cheerios that way.

Some cheerful and successful anglers.

We learned about jellyfish and then helped the children think of some different ways they could make the bodies and the waving tentacles. 

Charlotte and Saul chose to use coffee filters, markers and water filled eyedroppers for their bodies.  Squeezing the eyedropper is great for finger strengthening.  When the water drops onto the markers the children get a chance to see color mixing in action.  Since each child's placement of colors was different, the resulting colors were different too....prompting interesting scientific observations.

Emma is adding bubble wrap tentacles.  We learned that when the tentacles grab onto a fish there's a substance in them that paralyzes the fish.  The children loved acting this out and freezing "like statues".

Alex is learning to tie knots in the ribbon so his tentacles will stay on.

Suri proudly shows off her completed jellyfish.  Did you know a group of jellyfish is called a smack?  Come in the room and see our smack of jellyfish hanging on the clothesline!

After reading Chris Butterworth's wonderful story, The Shyest Fish in the Sea , the children made seahorses. Amelia
decided to make "twin" seahorses!

Saul is cutting his big seahorse.

Daniel is choosing between tissue paper, torn construction paper and pipe cleaners in order to make the fins on the back and head of his  seahorse.

Here's Patrick with his finished project.  The seahorse bodies were made with watered down acrylic paint placed on top of an inch of water.  There certainly was some science involved in this process, but we are quite sure the children were more impressed with the magical movement of the paint as they swirled a knife through the water.  They were also quite interested in the life of a seahorse and how the baby seahorses are independent from birth.  You can read some of their comments on our ocean bulletin  board.

Our visit to the Dallas World Aquarium

Charlotte is feeding one of the birds.

The sea otters seemed to love our class (and vice versa!)  The kids sat and watched, mesmerized by the playful movements of the sea otters. The children did not want to leave the otters,but as you can see from the next few pictures, they really enjoyed all the exhibits!

Waiting for the bus to take us back to school.  Our first field trip was a big success!