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The Sea Around Us – Grade 2

Table of Contents

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Introduction

Conceptual Scheme

Marine Aquaria

Bibliography

Successful Fieldtripping

Unit 1: The Ocean
   1. The World Ocean
Students use a globe to learn about the world’s oceans and their origins.

   2. Beach Treasures
Following a general discussion of beaches, students observe, sort, and classify objects from a particular beach.

   3. No Place Like Home
Safety issues are addressed and conservation practices are stressed in this important prelude to any trip to the tide pools.

   4. It’s Happening At the Beach
Guidelines for a class trip to the beach are presented along with a collection of interdisciplinary activities that have been successful with groups of students.

   5. Salt Water
Experimentation with table salt and water provides students with the opportunity to see some of the properties of sea water.

   6. Icebergs
Experiments with ice cubes made of both fresh and salt water lead to discoveries about icebergs and glaciers.

   7. Making Waves
Students use their breath to generate waves in a container, simulating the action of wind on the surface of the ocean and make a simple tool for measuring wind speed.

Unit 2: Plankton

   1. Sea Soup
Plankton are collected and observed; students then construct a dramatic version of their observations.

   2. Tiny – But Important
Students draw and measure several types of plankton, comparing their sizes to the length of the blue whale, a major plankton eater.

Unit 3: The Kelp Forest

   1. Algae Are Plants, Too
Marine algae are first compared to land plants; then, they are grouped and regrouped.

   2. Food Chains in the Kelp Forest
To help them understand the inter-relationships among plants and animals, students make a variety of food chains in a study of the kelp forest.

   3. Interdependence
Students assume the roles of sun, plants and animals and use yarn to link together in a kelp forest food web.

   4. Who’s For Dinner?
Students assume the roles of shrimp, kelpfish, and harbor seals in this role-playing game designed to further understanding of the food chain concept.

   5. Take a Role in the Kelp Forest
Students look at the specific habitats of the many types of animals living in the kelp forest.

   6. Nature’s Protection
Through readings and graphics, students examine predator-prey relationships and the stability of aquatic ecosystems in relation to their diversity.

   7. Kelp in the Kitchen
Students discover that substances extracted from seaweeds are found in many common household foods and products.

   8. A Kelp Forest in the Classroom
Using a variety of materials, students construct an almost-life-size kelp forest.

   9. Creating Kelp Creatures
This craft activity provides opportunities to “populate” the classroom kelp forest while studying the many interesting adaptations found in the kelp forest.

   10. Visual Aid
Working in small groups, students construct a simple, water-lens microscope which they use to examine small items from the kelp forest or beach.

Unit 4: Fish Features

   1. Observing Living Fish
After observing goldfish, students mime fish body parts and behaviors.

   2. Heads, Tails, and Scales
To review names and functions of the body parts, students create a fish from puzzle pieces.

   3. Read a Fish
Inferences made through observations of a fish’s body shape and the shape of its tail, lead to predictions of its swimming speed.

   4. Fish In The News
As part of a look at camouflage strategies, students “go fishing” for newspaper fish living in a newspaper “fish pond”.

   5. Hide and Go Fish
Frosting and other edible decorations are used to camouflage fish-shaped cookies on a sea floor of brightly colored wrapping paper or cloth.

   6. Going Fishing
Using scrap paper and art materials, students create a stuffed fish for display and to reinforce the relationship between form and function in fish.

   7. Schooling for Survival
Students simulate schooling behavior as they investigate schooling as an adaptation that helps some species of fish survive in their habitat.

   8. Shark!
Playing a board game gives students new information about sharks, providing them with a new appreciation of this much maligned animal.

   9. Fishing Boats
Using milk cartons and classroom supplies students make and test a sail boat and a paddle boat.

Unit 5: Marine Mammals

   1. Sea Otter Style
Students use their own bodies to gain an understanding of the importance of greater surface area in swimming; they also try getting food “sea otter style”.

   2. Urchins, Kelp, and Otters
A fun card game helps reinforce the complex interrelationships among these three organisms.

   3. Who Are Those Pinnipeds?
Making the body parts of seals and sea lions helps students recognize the differences between them.

   4. A Seal Pup Rescue
Students use their imaginations to understand the plight of a baby seal left alone on the beach and, in the process, learn the correct human response to such a situation.

   5. Marine Mammals in the Garbage
Human litter is examined to understand the negative impacts we are having on marine mammal populations and to learn how to minimize that impact.

   6. Whales Are Mammals
Students practice classification of sea animals to better understand the differences and similarities among them.

   7. Whale Adaptations
By simulating whale breathing and designing a “blubber mitt,” students experience two of the special physical features of whales.

   8. The Oceans As Whale Habitat
Baleen whales and their feeding habits are the subject of this four part activity.

   9. If Humans Lived in the Sea
Students use drawings and their imaginations to determine the physical adaptations they would need to survive in the sea.

Unit 6: The Deep Sea

   1. Exploring the Sea Floor
Building a model of the landforms at the bottom of the ocean gives students a sense of the many mountains, valleys, plains and volcanoes to be found there.

   2. Deep In the Ocean, the Pressure’s On
Students conduct a variety of experiments to understand the increase of pressure with depth in the ocean.

   3. Creatures of the Deep Sea
Creating models of deep sea fish and simulating a trip in a submersible, help students learn about the adaptations found in animals living in the deepest parts of the world’s oceans.

Unit 7: Make an Underseas World

   1. Zones of the Ocean Mural
A whole class project enables students to dramatically present the varied habitats of the ocean.

Production Credits

Below, you’ll find helpful resources for use with the above activities.

Unit 1: The Ocean

Activity 1 The World Ocean
Make your own globe instructions
Earth globe
Great-Circle indicator
We Care About Oceans Slide Show
Slide Script
Themes
Oceans Activities
Bibliography
Glossary
National. Wildlife Federation Creed
Message from NWF Vice President
Introduction
Credits
About the National Wildlife Federation

Activity 2 Beach Treasures
Root words

Activity 4 It’s Happening At the Beach
Enduring litter

Unit 2: Plankton

Activity 2 Tiny – But Important
Plankton identification sheet 1
Plankton identification sheet 2

Unit 3: The Kelp Forest

Activity 5 Take a Role in the Kelp Forest
Kelp forest canopy image
Kelp forest mini-tour
We Care About Oceans Slide Show
Slide Script
Themes
Oceans Activities
Bibliography
Glossary
National. Wildlife Federation Creed
Message from NWF Vice President
Introduction
Credits
About the National Wildlife Federation

Activity 6 Nature’s Protection
Fish drawings
Alikes – grouping activity

Activity 8 A Kelp Forest in the Classroom
Kelp forest mini-tour
National Wildlife Federation Kelp Habitat slide show
Slide Script
Marine Debris and Entanglement slide show
Marine Debris slide show script

Unit 4: Fish Features

Activity 3 Read a Fish
Fish card set

Activity 7 Schooling for Survival
Swimmy activities

Activity 8 Shark!
Sharks and Their Relatives part 1
Sharks and Their Relatives part 2
Sharks and Their Relatives part 3
Food chain activity

Unit 5: Marine Mammals

Activity 1 Sea Otter Style
California sea lion image

Activity 4 A Seal Pup Rescue
Seal images

Activity 5 Marine Mammals in the Garbage
Marine Debris and Entanglement slide show
Marine Debris slide show script
Enduring litter

Activity 8 The Oceans As Whale Habitat
Whale feeding habits
Feeding cards
Gray whale migration routes
Origami whale

Activity 9 If Humans Lived in the Sea
Kelp forest diver image

Unit 6: The Deep Sea

Activity 1 Exploring the Sea Floor
How to find marine information

Activity 2 Deep In the Ocean, the Pressure’s On
Bathysphere image

Activity 3 Creatures of the Deep Sea
Deep-sea exploration
Deep-sea fish cards

Unit 7: Make an Underseas World

Activity 1 Zones of the Ocean Mural
Life in Zones of the ocean
Ocean zones information cards

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