Ocean Zones

To finish out the school year, we are diving into the ocean and all its’ wonder. We started with making maps of the ocean zones. Then, we began looking at ocean life starting from the trenches and are working our way up. The children were fascinated by the bioluminescent creatures and enjoyed studying them.  The unit is also enriched with several ocean books, puzzles, games, and activities on the shelves.

Art and Dramatic play with Sea Creatures

We turned the patio into a marine biologists lab where the children pretended to do tests on the water and looked at the qualities of fish from the midnight zone. They learned vocabulary for the parts of a fish and the names of several bioluminescent creatures. The children participated in a process art activity that incorporated a science element by going over water color paint with rubbing alcohol to create a ripple effect.

The children participated in a few multi-sensory activities enhancing their learning experience. One involved learning about comb jellies and sketching them with oil pastels and blending with chalk pastels. Another grounding experience involved stamping ocean animals into Theraputty and then stepping on it with barefoot.

Handicrafts with Yarn

With all the fine motor practice and focus the children have cultivated, they were ready for advanced handicrafts. We started with pom poms and quickly moved onto weaving scarves with a cardboard popsicle stick loom. They are having a blast knitting while listening to music and audiobooks.