Water Wonders: Ocean Animals

salty water

Yesterday as the children were telling me what they know about water it quickly became evident that the children know a lot of animals that live in the water. I decided to help them classify their knowledge by separating these animals by where they live; salt water or fresh water. Today we focused on salt water animals.

fresh water

First a taste test! Human, animals that live on land, plants and fresh water animals all need water that isn't salty. Ocean and sea animals needs salty water and there are only a few exceptions (salmon for example) that can live in both salty and fresh waters. After the taste test the children were all happy that they need fresh water and not salty!

The children used books to research different ocean animals and we watched a video too. We compared animals that live in warm oceans and animals that live in cold oceans. Many of the children shared stories of being to the aquarium or animals they saw at the beach. Ryleigh insisted she's never been to the beach (hmmmm I wonder) and everyone agreed it would be a great idea to take a field trip to the beach in the coming weeks.

They applied their learning by painting an ocean mural. They had the option to paint free hand or sue stencils - they chose both.