Oceans!

We got a ton of books and videos from the library. I highly recommend Oceans for Every Kid. In fact, I want to look into that series. We also were looking at these websites:
games and activities , more games, more activities, and short videos.

We took out the Big Roll of Paper and made a vertical mural showing the zones of the ocean and a horizontal one showing food webs. I think that last one could be summarized as, "Everyone finds small squid tasty."

We took out a ton of books and videos from the library. We also were looking at these websites: <a href="http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/lc/activities/default.aspx">games and activities </a>, <a href="http://www.senseofwondersite.com/Games.asp">more games</a>,<a href="http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/beach-activities.htm"> more activities</a>, and <a href="http://www.neok12.com/Oceans.htm">short videos</a>. We took out the Big Roll of Paper and made a vertical mural showing the zones of the ocean and a horizontal one showing food webs. I think that last one could be summarized as, "Everyone finds small squid tasty." Researching the zones we discovered these interesting facts. There are 5 basic zones: sunlit (surface to 200 meters), twilight (200 to 1500 meters), midnight (1500 to 4000 meters), abyss (4000 to 6000 meters) and hadral or trench (6000 to 11000 meters). Some people roll the bottom 3 together and just call it midnight because there isn't any light from the sun there. Here's the neat part: 90% of the water in the ocean is in those bottom 3 zones (1500 to 11000 meters) BUT plants can only survive in the sunlit zone, so 90% of the life in the sea is in those top 200 meters! If you take a look, that's 90% of the life in something less than 2% of the water! We also made fish balloons and hung them from the ceiling. My favorite was the angler fish, but the squid attacking the eel was a close second.
Researching the zones we discovered these interesting facts. There are 5 basic zones: sunlit (surface to 200 meters), twilight (200 to 1500 meters), midnight (1500 to 4000 meters), abyss (4000 to 6000 meters) and hadral or trench (6000 to 11000 meters). Some people roll the bottom 3 together and just call it midnight because there isn't any light from the sun there.

Here's the neat part: 90% of the water in the ocean is in those bottom 3 zones (1500 to 11000 meters) BUT plants can only survive in the sunlit zone, so 90% of the life in the sea is in those top 200 meters! If you take a look, that's 90% of the life in something less than 2% of the water! If this poster were to scale, the trench zone (shown as a dark line on the bottom) would be on the basement floor.

A submarine became necessary. We just cut it out of cardboard and spray painted it.

We also made fish balloons and hung them from the ceiling. My favorite was the angler fish (which deflated before I got a picture), but the squid attacking the eel was a close second.