Dolphin Tale Unit Study Part Three

For the last part of our Dolphin Tale study we made little flip books with the information that we learned from our study. We didn't have a very large group that week but it was fun anyway. 

They had to work to find the words to fit into the blank spaces in the book. 

We loved seeing smiles on their faces as they worked together.

We even had some coloring pages for the younger kids if they wanted to do that, too. 

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by. 

Dolphin Tale Unit Study Part Two

We spent a major amount of time today in parent discussion because we had a new mom with questions. And after all, that is what we are here for, to help each other, give support and suggestions on what might work. AND to be an ear just to listen. As moms we need that time to share what is on our hearts. I love this group for that very reason. We are there for each other. We all have different teaching styles and curriculum but we all respect each other and don't think one is doing it wrong just because it isn't the way we are doing it. We learn so much from each other each time we meet. 

 

This week we had eleven kids that were able to come and stay for our craft time. We didn't have a large amount of time for the craft so we didn't do a lot of background on the Anglerfish like we did the Jellyfish. But it is my hope that it will spark an interest in looking into it further. I also printed off some extra stuff for them to do while they were there or at home. 

JC, as always, is being silly and Ryan thinks he is funny. The kids really seemed to have a good time making them. They used egg cartons, pipe cleaners, construction paper to cut out teeth, feathers for the tail and a bead on the end of the pipe cleaner for the "light".  Those two boys seem to really love the idea of the feathers for the tail. I just love the expressions on their faces!

They got to do it all by themselves except for when they asked for our help. It was a pretty easy craft but fun at the same time. They drew eyes and fins on the body with a marker. Each child got to pick from a bag of different color feathers and beads. They got really creative with the eyes and how they decorated them.

The younger AND older kids seemed to enjoy our time working together. Then the older ones had a Winter (that's the dolphin's name) word search and the young ones had a dolphin coloring picture to work on. We are so thankful for the mom's who were there helping us with the crafts, too. It makes it wonderful to have everyone working together. 

I told them if they would take a serious group picture they could do a silly group picture. As you can see, we had some happy kids who were more than willing to take a silly picture as a group. I am so pleased because they all told me how much fun they had and they were full of smiles. THAT is why I love bringing things for them to do. THAT is why I homeschool. THAT is why I love working with kids. Their smiles! 

We have one more week of the Dolphin Tale Unit Study. That will be two weeks from today. There is much more to the study than we have done or will be able to do in the short amount of time we are able to get together. Make sure you take the time to do some of the other activities at home with your kids and share how it turned out with the group. We would love to hear about it.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Dolphin Tale Unit Study Part One

After watching videos about the movie Dolphin Tale, we couldn't help but want to see the movie as a family. We are a big supporter of family friendly entertainment options. When I found out there was a unit study, being a homeschool mom, I was super excited. I love to turn anything that could be school into a fun time as well as learning new things. I see life as a big school room that we can learn and have fun at the same time. The study has five lessons but I am breaking it into three parts because we meet every other Thursday. We take from an hour to an hour and a half to complete some of the experiments and crafts while learning some neat marine biology. 

We did a science experiment called Sink or Swim. We made our own water column. Water columns are used or observed to better understand aquatic phenomena. We tested different items, such as a cork, grape, rock and dab of solid shortening. We learned that the difference in density of an object is called buoyancy or the ability to float. We had a pitcher of water and added syrup and oil. The syrup sunk below the water and the oil rose above the water. Then we tested each object and recorded where they fell in the water column. We also learned what sea creatures lived where in the oceans water column and made charts for our notebooks.

Our craft for that day was a Jellyfish.  Jellyfish are amazing creatures. They have no complex body organs, but they are able to survive quite well in the ocean. They are not able to swim against the currents of the ocean. They are called planktonic creatures. They have muscle-like fibers in their two layers of skin. They use those to pulse their bodies and move their long tentacles to help them stay afloat in the water. They use their tentacles to capture prey. 

After we learned some things about the jellyfish we made one out of the end of a plastic bottle and yarn. You cut the end off about 2 1/2 inches from the end. They picked yarn from a variety of colors. You need to have 10 long strands of thick yarn and 20 strands of thin yarn a couple of inches shorter than the long ones. Cut card stock the size of your plastic container. Staple the think strands to the middle and the thin strands in twos all the way around the outside. Then tape the card stock circle to the container. Attach fishing line to the top to hang the jellyfish with.

Not all the kids could stay for the group pictures because we did take a bit of time, due to the fact that I didn't bring more than one stapler so we had to share. That was a process that took the longest. I plan on being more prepared with supplies next time. We had a great time and as you can see, they turned out pretty neat! Stay tuned to see the neat things we do the next two weeks of our study during the month of October.

That's our progress report for today. Thanks for stopping by.