For National Week of the Ocean

Wednesday 23 April 2008
Posted by Neugier

we made Sea anemones, watched Nemo (in our Nemo PJs), played in the water, AND we "made" our own ocean!

Did You Know?

Jellyfish are not fish. They are invertebrates, which are relatives of coral and sea anemones. They have no eyes, hearts, bones, or brains. They have a simple nervous system to sense food and danger.

Octopuses
are very smart creatures. Some scientists think they may be as intelligent as dogs! Frieda, an octopus living at Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich, has learned how to open jars under water. She places her whole body over the jar and then grips onto the lid with the suckers on her arms. A quick twist of her body opens the jar. She won't open just any jar, however. Only jars filled with her favorite treats of clams, crab, and shrimp get her attention.

Sea anemones are predatory animals. They are carnivores that feed on fish and other live animals. Clownfish are immune to the stinging tentacles of the sea anemone. In fact, they use the anemone as their home.

*Our Sea anemones project and the above "Did You Know" information came from Crayola.com




For the Jelly Fish, I had a nice size of lamination that was technically "trash", instead we recycled it and made it into a jelly fish! With recycled tissue paper from Aydon's baby shower we "colored" our jelly fish. The only non recycled items in this project were glue and googlee eyes!

For the Octopus, we used one of the balloons from our Seuss Party, a white garbage bag, paper towels (that I will use to make next months Baby Wipes), packing tape left over from our move 2 years ago, and purple finger paint!

Our fish came from two sources. A finger painted paper grocery bag and the left over pieces of the file folders used in the sea anemones project.

We also purchased window ocean clings at a Teachers Supply store for $2.99. These we put in an upstairs and downstairs window. I anticipate using these as a great teaching resources for many years to come for every academic subject. :D

3 comments:

Susan Cook said...

Wow that's great that you made it out of mostly recycled stuff. Very cool & creative! It must have been very fun for the kids! I should try to be more creative like that - lol!
P.s. thanks for stopping by mine again. I know I can't wait! We're leaving this Sunday for Disney! TTYL :D

Anonymous said...

You made me feel so dull! Seriously, where do you come up with all these fun things to do with your kids? Do you do it every month, or every week? How does that work? Maybe you can e-mail me some info on what you guys do. I want to copy some of your stuff but I have no clue where to start. You are inspiring! :-)

Neugier said...

Oh my Jen! PLEASE do not feel dull! You are certainly anything but dull. And I have gotten ideas from you as well. :D
I will definately email you, but I will also work on a post-maybe monthly with random ideas. As you know my mother is a teacher and I feel as though she definately has a God given natural talent for teaching which thankful I inherited as did our oldest. So the two of us together make quite a team. And, I will gladly share any and all of our ideas.
Amy