One of my favorite units to teach during the school year is the Ocean! I usually teach this unit at the end of the school year right before summer break. The kids LOVE learning about ocean animals, and it is a great way to keep them engaged all the way up to the end of school when they are more difficult to keep focused. I am going to share with you some of the activities that we complete during our study of the ocean. They are all available in my Ocean Unit on TPT.
We begin our ocean unit with a focus on ocean animals. We focus on one ocean animal each day. I love to develop my kids' prior knowledge by completing this "What We Already Know" chart. The kids write one fact about the ocean animal on a sticky note and add it to the chart. We then look at each sticky note and talk about what they wrote.
I then introduce that animal using these nonfiction animal slides. The kids stay really engaged when I project the images as we discuss the ocean animal information.
We then complete a Can/Have/Are chart as a class. This is a great way to organize our newly learned information. We keep this displayed to use during our writing projects.
After completing the chart, we color and read the ocean animal book that matches the animal we are studying. These books provide more information about each ocean animal. These books are in a "teacher led" format, but the kiddos still love them!
After we read our ocean animal book for the day, we complete some additional activities that include reading, writing, labeling, organizing, and more!
Each day during our ocean unit, we will sing an ocean animal themed song. We will also create an ocean themed craft to match the animal we are learning about that day. Here is an example of the shark craft and song!
I like to display the song on the projector to create a "shared reading" experience.
Here are some of the additional activities that we complete during our 2 week ocean unit!
Sea Turtle Research Project
Ocean Animal Writing Book
Shark Labeling Activity
Life Cycle of a Sea Turtle
Favorite Ocean Animal Graphing
Goldfish Graphing
If you would like to use my Ocean Animal Unit in your classroom, you can grab it here. You can stretch this unit out over a 2 week period. I hope your kids love it!
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