End of the Year: Ocean Thematic Unit

In May, I spend the last two weeks of school teaching my students about oceans and sea life. I do a thematic unit that covers reading, writing, math, poetry and science. In this unit students will be learning about different kinds of shells: Univalve and Bivalve, the terrain under the ocean, different sea creatures, the ocean zones, the ocean food chain and the water cycle. The students are engaged in craftivities, interactive journals for math, science and poetry, science investigations and expository writing. We have a blast learning about the ocean and at the end of the unit, we make an ocean in a jar. Here is a picture with materials and directions: 

Ocean in a Jar

Isn't this cool! They are very easy to make and here's what you need: small mason jars- (one for each student), aquarium gravel, aquarium plants, plastic ocean animals, blue food coloring and jewels or sequence.

Each student fills their jar with gravel, a piece of the plant, an ocean animal and fill it with water. After filling it with water, add a drop of the blue food coloring. Then, screw the lid on and on top of the lid glue the sequence or jewels. This is a wonderful way to end your ocean unit so the students have something to take home and remember!

Another cool craftivity that we do for our ocean unit is called: Under the Sea. This is where the students color their ocean creatures and glue them onto a background. Then label whats at the bottom of the ocean. Here's a picture: 

After we complete the craftivity, we write a story about the ocean and it's sea creatures. This story gets stapled to the craftivity.

Here is a picture of my theme center. It has posters of ocean animals, shells, coral, seastars, plastic whales and sharks, ocean books and more! The students LOVE the ocean center. 

We also do a whale investigation and a shark investigation. I have these really cool plastic whales and sharks that I use for investigating different species.
Here are the whales:

Here are the sharks: 

So here's how I set this up: Before we do the investigation for both I read a whale story and a shark story. This really gets the students excited about what they are getting ready to do! 

Then, I set up stations around the classroom with the whales. I also have labels that go with each one. The students use their clipboards, pencils and whale templates to rotate around the room and illustrate the whales and label them. This will take about 20 minutes. When they are finished, they will color their whales and then cut out their template and glue it into their science notebook or journal. 

On the second day, I do the exact same thing, just with the sharks. The students LOVE this investigation! Here are the templates that I use for the whales and sharks: 

I also like to make these lapbooks for researching sharks, whales, seahorses, and seashells! All of the research templates get stapled inside the lapbook. 

You can even use this unit for summer school! Your students would love to have to some hands-on experience about the ocean and sea life. 

If you are interested in seeing more of my Ocean Thematic Unit, click here:

Ocean Commotion: A Thematic Unit

Happy Teaching! 

Love,

Kara 

                       Linking Literature with The Great Kapok Tree 

Have you ever had a book that you really didn't know what or how to use it in the classroom? Well, if you have The Great Kapok Tree By: Lynn Cherry you are in luck! I'd like to share with you some ideas that I have used with it this past year in my first grade class. 

I use this book in April when we are learning about two things: The Rainforest and Persuasive Texts. It's perfect and the students LOVE this book. They could read it over and over again. 

This book lends itself to a lot of reading, writing and science activities. First, I'd like to share with you my reading activities:
I used this book with Author's Purpose, Cause and Effect and Synthesis. Here is my synthesis anchor chart: 

Synthesis Anchor Chart

When you are teaching synthesis, I tie in "I Wonder" question stems that the students ask before, during and after reading. Last, they have to tell me how their schema has changed from the beginning of the story to the end. Of course, during the mini-lesson I model what these questions sound like, so they can understand them. Then, when it is independent reading time, they can go and apply their knowledge and skills to their own book that they are reading during Reader's Workshop.
Here is the template that I use for their schema notebook: 

Synthesis Sundae

Now, we can talk about persuasive writing. In this story, the animals are trying to convince the man to not cut down the Great Kapok tree. He falls asleep and they all talk to him in his dream.
At the end, he wakes up and drops his ax and walks out of the rainforest. This story is perfect for discussing persuasive texts. So, I ask the students, "Did the animals do a great job of convincing the man not to cut down the tree?" Of course they say "YES!" Then, I ask them "How do you know?" The students write me a persuasive story from the animal's point of view to not cut down the rainforest. Here is my persuasive planning guide:

After the students have written their argument, their three reasons and conclusion, then they copy their story onto this template: 

In science, we make a craftivity called: The Layers of the Rainforest. We color rainforest animals, cut them out and glue them on the correct layer with labels. I ask the students to make the trees trunks and leaves free handed. I really want them to use their creativity! I staple their persuasive story to the bottom of this craftivity. Here is an example: 

Rainforest Layers
For a home project, I have my students make a Rainforest Diorama. They research the rainforest layers and have questions to answer. These templates get glued to the back of their diorama. These get displayed outside in the hallway under our craftivities and writing. Here are some pictures of my students with their dioramas... and by the way, they received 100 bonus bucks for these! They were so excited! 


 

I hope you got some great ideas of how to use The Great Kapok Tree. If you are interested in these ideas, check out my Linking Literature Packet below. 

Linking Literature: The Great Kapok Tree 


Love, 
Kara