Oceans and Currently

Last week we wrapped up our study on oceans, just as I was discovering a learning tool called "Lapbooks." Is anyone familiar with these? I find them fascinating and wonder how is it I have never heard of them before. I graduated with a BA, substituted in school districts, and completed work for a teaching certification.... and I have never heard of Lapbooks! We will begin our next unit on space, and I will most definitely be incorporating this learning tool.

Back to the ocean unit, my daughter finished her Beach Journal:

She included sentences like, "I bring my..., I wear..., I pack..., I build..., I eat..., I see..., and included illustrations for each page.

 She also completed her wall ocean, which included clippings from National Geographic magazines.

As a fun craft, we made a couple of other ocean-related things that I'm excited to show later. For now, here is my "currently" for the month of February (including a new "Random And Kind" section). 

Have a great week!

Oceanography Study - 4th Grade Fun!

Happy Friday, everyone! We started our first week of oceanography and the curriculum does a great job of keeping it a bit... uninspiring. We did the best we could to make this an exciting lesson.

First, I wanted to get the girls excited about learning about the ocean. We put on our swimsuits (after cranking up the heater), and laid out our towels and some party table covers for our "ocean."

My 10-year-old created a "Beach Journal" where she wrote what she wears to the beach, builds, eats, drinks, does, brings, etc. We also read together the only book I have that related to our topic:

Once the excitement was there, we started the chapter on oceanography. Each day, we encorporated a craft to keep it interesting. On one particular day we made an "Ocean in a Bowl."

We made blue jello, let it sit a bit in the fridge, then added some Nemo gummy fish. We stuck it back in the fridge to harden completely. My 10-year-old was thrilled by how it turned out! She showed it to all the neighborhood kids too.

We also hung up a blue, plastic, table cover on her wall. Using National Geographic magazines, she's cutting out pictures of fish and slowly adding it to her wall display. I'll post more pics next week as we finish our lesson on the ocean.

Having a great time with our ocean in the desert. Have a great weekend. :)

Linking to: 3 boys and a Dog, Living Life Intentionally