Swimming creatures of the Fifth Day - Unit One

With 13 Chapters to this book I'm aiming for 1 - 2 chapters in each of our five week blocks. Unlike last year I want to focus our efforts away from the read narrate and thin look at the activities approach we have been using to something more focused and less writing oriented.

So for Chapter one - I don't yet know whether my boys are using two separate Apologia books or if we are working together. It would be easier to do this once for both, but in doing this I feel much more positive about this year and where we are heading.

Objectives:

1. To gain an overview of the structure of the ocean. Including a scientific understanding of currents, tides and the geography of an ocean.

2. Introduction of general terms for analyzing life in the ocean - according to mobility, and to animal type.


Notebook activities

• Aquatic Mobility page, using drawings of each type of animal and a summary sentence to describe the three classification of swimming creature mobility.
  
• Animal categorization, definitions of mammal, reptile, amphibian, fish and invertebrates. Make lift up laps for each category of creature and write the distinctive characteristics under the flap.
• On a map of the world show the surface currents or gyres. On the same map label the oceans of the world.
  
• On a separate diagram show the relationship between the continental shelf, continental slope, continental rise and the abyssal plain. What else might be found in the abyssal plain?
• Written exercise, describe what a tide is both scientifically in terms of the moons pull on the earth and from your experiences at the beach over summer.

Other activities:

• Begin to put together an Ocean Box to show what you are learning in your studies of swimming creatures.

• Explore the websites listed on the Apologia site of book extras.