Ocean | I Choose Joy!

Studying whales and walruses with YouTube

October 30, 2012 By genamayo 3 Comments

We’re studying ocean animals this year and have found YouTube to be a great resource! Here are my Top Ten favorite whale and walrus videos.

(By the way, the picture above was taken by me of a beluga whale at the Shedd Aquarium–one of my favorite places!)

Breaching whale–amazing how close they were!

Swimming With Sperm Whales

Spyhopping Killer Whales

Lobtailing humpback whales

Beluga whale giving birth

Narwhals

News Reports about Humphrey from 1985. He’s a humpback whale who mistakenly swam up the Sacramento River.

Killer whales attack and kill minke whale (a little graphic)

And a couple of my favorite animal: The Walrus!

Walrus and mommy

Walrus exercising

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Filed Under: Homeschooling Time Tagged With: Ocean, walrus, whales, youtube

Ocean Boxes- Lesson 2

September 18, 2012 By genamayo Leave a Comment

**6-Week Fitness Challenge is coming Monday October 1!

Follow my blog so you won’t miss it!

My kids beg to work on these Ocean Boxes almost every day, but I can usually hold them off until Fridays. :)

Compare with the last update to see how much they’ve added since last time!

Love the squid!

Sea urchin:

Tube anemones:

Adorable octopus at the bottom of this one:

We added sponges here:

My 5-year-old is pretty creative with the colorful shark on the ocean floor:

Here is my 3-year-old did this one:

There’s a sea turtle floating on the surface of this one:

As I’ve said before, the Crayola Model Magic is incredible for doing projects like these!

A lot of the ideas for how to make the animals came from watching this movie, IMAX Deep Sea. I’ll share some of the other books and videos we’ve watched so far next time. See our past Ocean box posts here and here.

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Filed Under: Homeschooling Time Tagged With: Apologia Swimming Creatures, diorama, Discount School Supplies, Ocean

Ocean Boxes (dioramas)- Lesson 1

August 31, 2012 By genamayo Leave a Comment

We started making our ocean boxes today (Wednesday). We were “supposed” to start on them on Friday, but after a lot of begging, I relented! One of the joys of homeschooling–being able to adjust the schedule when needed. The first lesson was to cover the box in blue (we used a combination of blue contact paper, construction paper, and blue painter’s tape). Then we were going to just make the ocean floor–rocks, volcanos, hills, etc. Some of the kids got so excited over using the Model Magic that they made a bunch of ocean animals, too!

I love how my daughter made part of the jellyfish sticking up above the water. We learned that Lion’s Mane Jellyfish can grow longer than blue whales!

There is a lot of empty space in the box because we have A LOT more animals to make. See this post for our plans.

Here are the other kids’ boxes. (Yes, my three-year-old made snow men for hers–the last box below).

Crayola Model Magic is an amazing invention! I don’t regret one bit ordering a class-pack of 75 individual packages for my kids to use this year. We got a great deal on it at Discount School Supply! If you’ve never tried it, it’s like clay but not messy at all. You can color it with markers, and it dries in 24 hours. My kids love it!

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Filed Under: Homeschooling Time Tagged With: Apologia Swimming Creatures, diorama, Discount School Supplies, Ocean

Ocean Boxes (dioramas) for Apologia Zoology 2 Swimming Creatures

August 14, 2012 By genamayo 1 Comment

For science this year we will be studying swimming creatures using Apologia’s Zoology 2 text. One project the kids and I are excited about is making ocean boxes, a.k.a. dioramas. We made some simple ones four years ago, but this year they will be a bit more elaborate.

For each chapter they will make another animal that they studied. I’ve been saving diaper boxes, so that each child will have their own. Below is the plan, including the supplies. I’m keeping all the supplies in a specified box to help this project go more smoothly. I found most everything at the dollar store and Wal-Mart (and the blue contact paper at a thrift shop). I’m going to order the Model Magic (75 1-ounce packages) at a great price from Discount School Supply, which will allow each child to use one packet per animal, if they choose!

Join us throughout this year as I share how we made each animal and post pictures of our creations. (You may want to follow I Choose Joy! through Facebook, Twitter, email, RSS, and or Pinterest. See sidebar for links. I also have a special Swimming Creatures Pinterest board.)

Supplies needed:

Scissors, white glue, glue gun, Model Magic, blue contact paper, rocks, colored felt, pompon balls, small clear applesauce containers, egg carton, construction paper, foam sheets, thread, glitter glue, seashells, sand dollars, googly eyes, small feathers, small styrofoam balls, toothpicks, yarn, small balloons, pipe cleaners, straws, paper bags, and a sponge.

Lesson 1: Cover and line the box with blue contact paper.

Lesson 2: Whale

Lesson 3: Seal, walrus, or manatee (sitting in a rock)

Lesson 4: Sea turtle (egg carton, foam sheets, googly eyes); sea snake (pipe cleaner)

Lesson 5: Plesiasaur

Lesson 6: Fish (felt cut-outs decorated with glitter glue, hung with thread)

Lesson 7: Shark, ray, or lamprey

Lesson 8: Crab (half a styrofoam ball with pipe cleaners and googly eyes)

Lesson 9: Shell animal like hermit crab, oyster, or snail (use real shell and add the animal with Model Magic)

Lesson 10: Squid or octopus (brown paper bag)

Lesson 11: Sea Urchin (styrofoam ball with toothpicks), Sea star (Model Magic), feather star (feathers)

Lesson 12: Jellyfish (small applesauce container with yarn), man o war (small balloon), anemone (Model Magic with pipe cleaners and paper clownfish

Lesson 13: Sponge (piece of a sponge), marine tubeworms (straws and feathers)

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Filed Under: Crafts, Homeschooling Time Tagged With: Apologia Swimming Creatures, diorama, Discount School Supplies, Model Magic, Ocean

Oceans unit study and lapbook

August 9, 2008 By genamayo Leave a Comment

We’ve come to the end of our Oceans unit study. There were still a few things that we didn’t do, but it’s time to move on. (Now we’re studying the Olympics and Deserts.)

Here are some of the things we did:
Read many books (listed below),
Read “Pagoo” (Holling), a living book about a hermit crab living in the ocean,
Field Trips to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and a local pet store (where we saw hermit crabs),
Science experiments from Bill Nye’s Ocean book,
Crafts, including making ocean dioramas (from Crafts for Kids Wild About Oceans),
Lapbook (materials from Hands of a Child, internet, and other places)

Dioramas:

Shedd Aquarium Dolphin Show:

Lapbook:

Books we read about oceans: