Ocean Unit Study & lapbook Part I

After a three week holiday break, school is back! I learned a lot from my first year of homeschooling. I was able to write down some things I noticed throughout last year, mainly the times of the school year when we were more motivated to do school as well as the times where motivation was non existent.

September through November, lots of energy and motivation!! Right after the Xmas holidays and Easter week? no desire to do anything... both me and the kids.

So, while I was planning this year I made sure to schedule things that would get us back into the swing of things, something to motivate us in the new year. Since it is the beginning of winter I decided to do an ocean unit study. You know, the beach, summer....{sigh}.

It is a two week study, the first week we are learning about creatures who live in the ocean. More specifically, whales, dolphins and sharks! The kids are familiar with them and want to learn more about them, also we don't really need to get too in depth since we are doing Exploring Creation: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day in a couple of years.

The second week we'll be learning about the oceans where these creatures live as well as the Continents where the oceans are located by.

Lapbooking is something we started this year and it's been a great addition to our homeschooling. I decided to start posting pictures of our lapbooks now that I have the hang of it!
Please remember that most of our lapbooks are made using Homeschoolshare.com, if you see something you like you can just go there and find it.

Here is the lapbook for this week: whales, dophins and sharks! Like I said is very simple but the kids love it, they look at the pictures over and over.



We watched Finding Nemo since it's a perfect movie go along with our study. Happy Feet also shows ocean life and Orca whales!
I wanted to watch Jaws so they could see a Great White shark...but that's probably not a good idea. I watched that movie when I was 6yrs old and had to sleep in my grandparents bed for about a week!! Instead we are watching shark clips on YOuTube.
Along with the unit study we are reading the book Dory Story. The kids love this book, the great thing is I only paid $.25 for this book at the used book store.