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

Shark Week generally happens in July, but any time is a good time to learn more about sharks.

First, start with some fun whale facts like these from Kids Craft Room. Here I learned about the dwarf lantern shark, which is the smallest shark and only grows to about 6-8 inches (about 15-20 cm) long. It also emits light. How cool is that?

Natural Beach Living has some great printable shark information guides, where kids can learn about different kinds of sharks, match the facts to the pictures, or print out doubles and do a shark memory game.

Living Life an Learning has some great shark activity pages including the parts of a shark, types of sharks, a crossword puzzle and more. Also check out their parts of a shark and word scramble download, and a life cycle worksheet.

Learn about how sharks float with this great activity from JDaniel4’s Mom.

Need more facts about sharks? This fact pact from The WOLFe PACK on Teacher Pay Teachers includes fact sheets, a printable flip book, informational text, vocabulary, comprehension questions and more.

Living Montessori Now has a great collection of shark themed activities with a Montessori inspired twist. You’ll find a shark roll and cover, shark phonics and lots more shark activities Deb has collected from all over the Internet.

Remember the “Sharknado” movie? A Few Shortcuts turned the combination of sharks and tornadoes into a fun science activity. You’ll need a bottle connector for this project but otherwise should have everything you need on hand. Use their template to make your sharks out of aluminum foil. So fun!

You can also do some shark themed coloring with these coloring pages from Encouraging Moms at Home. Or make a cool 3D shark with this template from korkotak. And there are tons of different shark crafts collected in this post from Kids Activities Blog.

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