We started our Ocean/Beach Unit off with some sandy facts and fun. One year that we went to Sanibel, pre kiddos, I had Cale lug a garbage sack with sand from the beach home with us. Yes, he carried it all through the airport, onto the plane and all through DIA once we got home. He really loves me if you couldn't tell.
Anyway, we took a closer look at some of that sand. Caleb sifted it through a screen strainer and then we examined exactly what Sanibel Island sand is made up of. LOTS of tiny shell fragments, tiny fish bone pieces, pieces of driftwood... you get the picture. We discussed how the waves break all the above into those little pieces and then into smaller pieces and so forth. Caleb made lots of wave crashing and bashing sound effects to illustrate this.
We also spread all the shells we had collected from this summer's trip onto the schoolroom table and then got out our handy dandy shell identification guides. We had quite a few different types of shells. Shelling is one of the things Sanibel is known for. Next, Caleb selected some of his favorites and we made this pretty wind chime.
We also read a few books on the types of animals that used to live in those shells. Scallops and Hermit Crabs being Caleb's favorites. If you have not seen a photo of a Scallop before you should click this link. They are very cool looking, with over 60 eyes. And no, that's not a typo, 60 eyes is correct. We got out some sea animal magnets that I found at the Marshalls for Caroline. She really likes to play magnets.
We read A House For Hermit Crab by Eric Carle and then decorated our own Hermit Crab shells like in the book.
Here's the finished product! The Hermit Crab is upside down because I apparently was not paying attention when I took this photo. He is right side up now though, just incase you were worried about him. =)
We still have lots more Ocean/Beach Unit fun, I'll post more in the coming days.
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