Under The Sea

Under The Sea
An Integrated Thematic Unit
By Victoria Smith

Coral reef at Monterey Bay Aquarium
Photo by Victoria Smith

"For in the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." ~ B. Dioum

This unit is going to have a different "feel" from many of my other online units, for a number of reasons:

I'm devoting more time to developing it, and have been actively working on it for the past year.

There will be a much broader spectrum of activities and information covered, because the ocean is very special to me and I think it's important to teach our young students (and ourselves and our colleagues) how to preserve the delicate ecosystems that make up the world's oceans.

Parts of this unit were designed to fulfill the requirements of my year-long Central Coast Science Project workshop on Integrating Science and Technology, which includes creating lessons and curriculum that address the State of California Science Standards for Kindergarten and First Grade.

Because my personal areas of expertise are language acquisition and emergent literacy, I approached this project in the same way I begin developing all of my units: by finding good, solid materials and activities to extend reading, writing, language development, and math skills "across the curriculum," using Ocean Life as an overall theme that allows me to address ALL of the Standards for Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science ... and, to a slightly lesser degree, History and Social Studies.

In addition to materials and activities created for this unit that fulfill the goals of my CCSP Project, I developed many other terrific lessons, resources, and activities, some of which grew out of another year-long course: an Independent Study class called Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary: Oceans Alive! offered by Dave Miller though Fresno Pacific University. This is a terrific Professional Development course for teachers, even for those of us who grew up within a two hour drive of the Monterey Bay.

I gained a lot of new knowledge about California's beaches and nearby environs during several Monterey Bay site visitation trips I've taken in the past twelve months (all of them tax-deductible as education expense for the course mentioned above :o) The site visitations have been informative and fun, and were also the basis for several nice weekend vacations with my family.

I especially enjoyed visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium (where we have a family membership) and the Point Lobos Marine Reserve, where I took over 200 photos, many of which will eventually find their way into Power Point Presentations to be used online and/or in my classroom.

The first online emergent reader that I made for this unit -- Color Fish -- was created as the "creative project" for my FPU Monterey Bay class, during my second weekend site visit. I made a second online emergent reader -- Who Lives In The Sea? -- using photos I took at Point Lobos in July 2000.

A key factor in the "technology" lessons designed for this unit is that the various types of technology must be used actively, for direct instructional purposes. In other words, sitting a child down to play a computer game does *not* constitute using technology as an instructional tool.

Lessons & Activities Integrating Techology
With The State of California
Kindergarten Science Standards

Online Emergent Reader Books
By Victoria Smith

Color Fish

Who Lives In The Sea?
Includes follow-up activities and a discussion of the
science standardsaddressed.

Award Winning Videos

Instructional Videos Purchased At
Monterey Bay Aquarium

I've made extensive use of these three videos while presenting information
about the various aquatic environments (intertidal zone, rocky shore,
kelp forest, etc.) and also while presenting information about sea life which includes animals and plants.

The first two videos -- "Monterey Bay Aquarium" and "Behind the Scenes at the Monterey Bay Aquarium" are comprised of short informational segments on specific habitats or sealife, and are perfect for children of all ages. Watching these two videos, over the course of two to three weeks, is like taking a Virtual Field Trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

I've used these videos for lessons that include the following:

The Rocky Shore The Kelp Forest Flukes and Flippers
Voices In The Sea Sea Otters Sharks Anchovies
Squid & Cuttlefish Giant Pacific Octopus Tuna
Green Sea Turtle Jelly Fish Marine Mammals
How Sea Life Is Collected Aquarium Volunteers
The Outer Bay & Monterey CanyonAviary & Ocean Birds
Making Meals -- How The Animals at MBAQ Are Fed

The other video shown above -- "The Living Sea" -- was created for exhibition in IMAX Theatres, and features songs and music by STING. The photography is luscious, and the video includes a follow-up section on "The Making of The Living Sea," which details how the film was made. The KinderKids enjoyed this one, too.

All three of these videos are wonderful when used as "mini lessons" to introduce or extend lessons about Ocean Life.

Visit the Kelp Cam at the Monterey Bay Aquarium!

The Kelp Cam collects a series of twenty live images every minute from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., PST.

This is a fascinating area for my KinderKids, and we've really enjoyed watching the live images of the Kelp Forest while learning about the plants and animals who live there. By clicking here, you can see a short online video about the Kelp Forest. You can also participate in an interactive online program about identifying the creatures that live in the Kelp Forest by clicking here.

Explore Some More at the Kid's E-Quarium!

No Virtual Field Trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium would be complete without visiting the wonderful Kids' E-Q. There are 8 habitats to explore, plus sections on Marine Mammals and on Octopuses (Octopii?) and their kin. Each of the ten areas is filled with facts, interactive online exhibits, links to live cams inside the Aquarium (the Tide Pool cam -- which keeps an eye on the outside tidepool, right below the Aquarium in the Bay -- and the Otter and Penguin cams are our favorites!). Don't miss the fun coloring pages, Tic-Tac-Toe and Memory games, and the super-popular Ollie the Otter paperbag puppet!

Student Art

We complemented almost every lesson with a creative follow-up activity, which means we've made LOTS of ocean-themed art! Here are some of our favorite projects ...

Under The Sea

So many sea animals! Crabs, orange fishes, and octopuses (yikes, there's that word again!) qare handprints. The sea turtle and patchwork fish are TLC projects (www.tlcart.com).

A handful of my girls showing off their new sunvisors ~ I bought plastic visors at the dollar store (about 25 cents each!), let the kids choose their own color and a real seashell for me to attach with a hot glue gun. Names were added with a permanent marker.

Me and 14 of my 16 KinderKids ~ June 1, 2001

Our Ocean Quilt

Our Ocean Quilt features handprint crabs and fish, plus moon jellyfish I designed, and patchwork fish from TLC's Ocean Thematic Unit book (www.tlacart.com)