Ocean Unit Studies and Activities

It seems like summer is the perfect time to learn about the ocean, and you can even use some ocean-themed printables in the car or plane if you’re traveling to the ocean (I did that once with the printables from the ocean unit study by Natural Beach Living).

Get layers of the ocean printables from Homeschool Giveaways, or do some hands on learning about the layers of the ocean with this activity from Little Bins for Little Hands. That post also includes an overview of the zones and a way to access printables on ocean themed STEM activities.

All of Our Homes has great ideas for an oceans of the world unit study that looks at where the oceans are located, different animals that live there, and activities with links to free resources you can use in your classroom.

Throw in a few books about the ocean and you’ll be all set. We had the National Geographic Kids First Big Book of the Ocean when my daughter was little, then graduated to the Smithsonian’s Ocean! knowledge encyclopedia.

Games are a great way to learn, and these ocean memory cards from The Purposeful Nest can be used as flash cards, pick an animal to learn about or play a memory game with. Or ply ocean bingo with these printable cards from Confessions of Parenting. Simple Everyday Mom has another ocean matching game, which has super cute cartoony characters, perfect for preschoolers.

I try not to include a ton of paid resources in these kinds of roundups, but Inspire the Mom has a gorgeous unit study on ocean animals (among others) that I couldn’t resist sharing. It includes nature study, math, language arts, handwriting and more, and is perfect for homeshooling for kiddos from preschool up through second grade.

Inspire My Play has a great collection of ocean-themed play and craft ideas for little ones, including this super cute ocean cleanup activity pictured above.

Need more ideas? Check out this post on an ocean-themed bump game, more ocean learning activities and some clear ocean slime, perfect for playing with shells and little ocean animals!

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Activities for Learning about the Ocean

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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