What we've been studying in science

I thought I'd share what we've done recently in science. I asked the kids to choose a topic to study and they chose ocean animals. We have previously studied animal classification, so it was fun to see them noting that whales were mammals, squids were mollusks, etc. This unit study tied it all together for them.

We checked out several books from the library about whales, dolphins, sharks, jellyfish, seastars, squid, seashells, coral reefs, you name it. If it was about the ocean, we read it! Our favorite was The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor. We also watched several videos online about coral reefs, jellyfish, etc. The kids loved seeing what we were studying in action!

We made a little book with lapbook elements that I found at Homeschool Share. This is a wonderful free resource for all kinds of lapbooks, so check them out. If you're not familiar with lapbooking, check out Jimmie's Squidoo lens with tons of info and examples.


I cut sheets of cardstock in half, then we glued the mini-books they had made onto the pages. We punched holes and tied the pages together with yarn. Very, very simple!

Here are a few pages to give you an idea of what we did:





I love making books like this so the kids have a tangible reminder of what they've learned during the course of the unit study. It also gives me a chance to evaluate their retention skills as they create the mini-books.

We capped our study off with a trip to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. I wonder if we'll take a trip to Hawaii when we study volcanoes? I wish!