Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: under the sea

Showing posts with label under the sea. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Littles Learning Link Up: Under the Sea Unit: Sea Turtle Lesson

Each month you will find:

Posts where I share what I have been up to with my elementary-age children and the preschoolers I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).
The occasional round up post.

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme. Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up.

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

Here's a peek at what we have been up to in our homeschool.

We've mainly been keeping busy with our review products. When it comes to our My Father's World curriculum, I've sort of put that on pause. Tabitha has been reading on ahead in her history lessons, but seeing as we are in colonial times and have been learning about George Washington with our YWAM Publishing book and unit study, and Benjamin Franklin with our Home School in the Woods lapbook, I figured that was great for now. Both of those reviews will be posted this week.

They have continued using Let's Go Geography during their computer time to learn about countries they are interested in. Though they haven't done any of the hands-on projects.

We have also continued math on the computer with CTCMath, plus Harold likes using Matific Galaxy. Additionally they have been getting extra practice with riddle worksheets from Math Galaxy. That is another review that will be posted this week.

We are missing being able to go to co-op. However, as I am behind in my postings, I still have two prek/k lessons to share with you. We had continued our "Under the Sea" unit, and I still had more lessons planned. I do not know if co-op will start up again or if we will be waiting until next school year. I'm not sure what I will do when it comes to this unit if it waits until October to start back up. We'll see.

Moving on to our preschool lesson:

We moved on from seahorses to learn about sea turtles.

We read this book:

We looked at the map in the book to see where the sea turtle spend her life.

Then we started our Paper Plate Sea Turtle Craft.

You'll need:

Paper plates

Green construction paper

Wiggle eyes

Green paint

Yellow paint

White paint to make the yellow a light yellow

Paint brushes

Black marker

Glue sticks

School Glue

Stapler

Scissors

Prior to class you could cut the green construction paper into small hexagons for the scutes on the carapace, plus front flippers, back flippers, heads and tails. However, as the children are getting older, I had them cut them out themselves.

First they painted the carapace green. Make sure to paint the bottom of the paper plates for this craft, so when you staple them together the turtle isn't flat.

We set those aside and then painted the plastron light yellow.

While those dried the children worked on cutting out the scutes and other body parts.

When the children came back from snack and gym, the paper plates were dry, so they were able to glue the scutes to the carapace.

Then they glued the head, flippers, and tail to the unpainted side of the plastron.

Then we stapled the top to the bottom and added wiggle eyes and a mouth.

Paper plate sea turtles:

Then we made a sea turtle snack out of rice cakes, peanut butter, apple slices, kiwi slices, grape halves, and raisins.

First the children spread the peanut butter on the rice cakes.

The grape halves were the scutes and tails, the kiwi slices were the heads, apple slices were the flippers and the raisins were the eyes.

Of course, we also sang our Under the Sea songs.

"One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Once I caught a fish alive."

Plus a song that goes to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus." We found a video for this song online, but I don't have signal at the camp, so we didn't watch it. I just wrote down the words. There were five different ocean animals. And, of course, I added motions.

The shark in the ocean goes chomp, chomp, chomp,

Chomp, chomp, chomp

The shark in the ocean goes chomp, chomp, chomp

CHOMP....CHOMP....CHOMP!

Same pattern for the following:

The turtle in the ocean goes snap, snap, snap...

The crab in the ocean goes click, click, click...

The jellyfish in the ocean goes wibble wobble wibble

The fish in the ocean goes swish, swish, swish (though the one girls wanted to do, The fish in the ocean goes swimmy, swimmy, swimmy...)

The seahorse in the ocean rocks back and forth...

We were supposed to continue the under the sea unit for a while, but our final lesson was about sea turtles. No clue when we will get back to co-op.

Here are a couple of things I would like to share with you:

Fishy Under the Sea Literature and Craft Round Up

Butterfly Fun Round Up

Butterfly Metamorphosis/Life Cycle Fun Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there was 1 wonderful post linked up.

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's featured post is:

Gale from Imaginative Homeschool shared INDOOR GAME: Laundry Basket Ball

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

I am sharing over at

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Littles Learning Link Up: Under the Sea Unit: Seahorse Lesson

Littles Learning Link Up is back on Tuesday!!

Each month you will find:

Posts where I share what I have been up to with my elementary-age children and the preschoolers I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).
The occasional round up post.

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme. Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up.

Here's a peek at what we have been up to in our homeschool.

They have continued using Let's Go Geography during their computer time to learn about countries they are interested in. Though they haven't done any of the hands-on projects.

Moving on to our preschool lesson:

We moved on from hermit crabs to learn a bit about seahorses.

We read this book:

Then we started our Seahorse in a Paper Plate Sea Grass World

You'll need:

Paper plates

Light blue paint

Green paint

Paint brushes

Light green tissue paper

Other various colors of tissue paper

Glue sticks

Seahorse template

Prior to class I cut the green tissue paper into strips and the other colors of tissue paper into squares. I printed out the seahorse templates onto cardstock.

The children painted the paper plates blue.

We set them aside to dry and the children spread glue all over the seahorse and attached the tissue paper squares.

When the paper plates were dry, the children painted on the green sea grass.

They each had their own individual way of painting the sea grass.

The children went to have their snack and gym time.

While they were up there, I cut out the sea horses. Then when the children returned they added some tissue paper sea grass. I had them twist it a bit then add glue to the top and the bottom of the plate and attach the tissue paper. Then we wrapped the seahorse's tail around the tissue paper sea grass.

Then we compared seahorses to other fish. I made this worksheet with the fish outlines. Things that the seahorse had in common with other fish went in those outlines. Differences went below.

These are the songs we sing:

"One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Once I caught a fish alive."

The shark in the ocean goes chomp, chomp, chomp,

Chomp, chomp, chomp

The shark in the ocean goes chomp, chomp, chomp

CHOMP....CHOMP....CHOMP!

Same pattern for the following:

The turtle in the ocean goes snap, snap, snap...

The crab in the ocean goes click, click, click...

The jellyfish in the ocean goes wibble wobble wibble

The fish in the ocean goes swish, swish, swish (though the one girls wanted to do, The fish in the ocean goes swimmy, swimmy, swimmy...)

and we added a seahorse verse

The seahorse in the ocean rocks back and forth...

We were supposed to continue the under the sea unit for a while, but our final lesson was about sea turtles. No clue when we will get back to co-op.

Here are a couple of things I would like to share with you:

Fishy Under the Sea Literature and Craft Round Up

Focusing on the Cross with 15 Jesus-Centered Books for Resurrection Sunday

Focusing on Jesus Resurrection Day Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there was 1 wonderful post linked up.

This week's featured post is:

Brandy from The Barefoot Mom shared Learning About Birds: Ducks and Other Waterfowl.

Join the Party!

I am sharing over at

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Littles Learning Link Up: Under the Sea Unit: Hermit Crab Lesson

Littles Learning Link Up is back on Tuesday!!

Each month you will find:

Posts where I share what I have been up to with my elementary-age children and the preschoolers I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).
The occasional round up post.

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme. Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up.

Here's a peek at what we have been up to in our homeschool.

Unfortunately we didn't get as much done last week as I would have liked. We were dealing with a stomach bug that kept making stops on different family members. We focused mainly on getting math done and working on geography with Let's Go Geography. Tabitha has continued reading ahead in her history reading. She's several weeks ahead of us now.

Tabitha is also reading about George Washington with the book from YWAM Publishing that we are reviewing. I started reading it to the other children and we are going to start using the unit study that we also received. Additionally, I have started a lapbook about Benjamin Franklin from Home School in the Woods. This is mainly with the younger two children, but I am having the older children listen to the story.

I'm working on reading comprehension with Hannah. We are using the Reading Comprehension Program from PRIDE Reading Program. That review will be posting this week.

Moving on to our preschool lesson:

We continued with our Under the Sea unit by focusing on hermit crabs for the next two weeks.

We read the book A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle.

I searched for ideas for hermit crab crafts online. Because we did the handprint fish, I thought it would be cute to make handprint hermit crabs as well. There were several similar ideas, so I am not exactly sure who came up with it first. However, I really liked the idea I saw over at I Heart Craft Things, where she added the friends to the craft. I used some of her ideas, and tweaked them as I usually do.

Handprint Hermit Crab Craft

Here are the supplies you need:

Light blue construction paper

Small paper plate
Orange, brown, green, blue, white, and pink construction paper

Red pipe cleaners

wiggle eyes

red acrylic paint

school glue

crayons

Black permanent marker

gray marker

paintbrush

q-tip

watercolor paints

First, I prepped the friends at home. I cut out all the needed pieces for the sea anemone, starfish, coral, snail, sea urchin, and lantern fish. I actually surprised myself by being able to draw my own version of the lantern fish.

After singing our two fishy songs from the previous week, I read the book. Then we painted the children's hands red for the hermit crab body. While they dried, the children used the permanent marker to draw on the spiral and then they painted the shell with the watercolor paints.

The children went to have snack and gym. When they returned, we glued the shell and handprint to the blue paper. We used the school glue because I figured glue sticks wouldn't hold really well. We also added the pipe cleaner as eyes stems and added on wiggle eyes at the ends. Then we went through each month of the year as a review and talked about what friend the hermit crab met that month.

You can see details over at I Heart Crafty Things for how she made each of the friends. As I said, I did make a few change. For instance, I couldn't find my tissue paper, so the sea anemone was made entirely of construction paper. And we used glitter as sand on the bottom of the paper. Plus we used the gray marker to draw pebbles around the crab.

Here are their finished crafts:

The second week they made Hermit Crab lapbooks.

How humans decorate their houses, compared to how the hermit crab decorated his. I thought it would be a fun way to review the order of the months and when the friends joined him.