Unit 1: Saltwater
- 1. Salty Water
- Students make salt water, taste it at different depths with a straw; then evaporate drops of salt and fresh water.
- 2. Saltwater Floaters
- Students sink an egg in a cup of freshwater; then add salt until the egg floats. They check the buoyancy of familiar objects – carrot, nut, pebble.
- 3. Water as a Weight Lifter
- Students test to see how heavy a bag of pebbles is when it is submerged, versus when not submerged.
- Unit 2: Hermit Crabs
- 1. Intertidal Tales
- Students role play a beach visit practicing beach etiquette (turned stones should be turned back, animals should be left in their homes…) and more.
- 2. Observing Hermit Crabs
- Students observe live crabs move, hide, and scurry after food; then students enact crab behavior.
- 3. Borrowed Shells
- Students use literature, song and writing to examine how hermit crab adaptations help these animals meet the challenges of their habitat.
- 4. Clothespin Claws
- Students model foraging behavior before and after losing a clothespin claw, making bar graphs to gauge foraging efficiency.
- Unit 3: Sea Anemones
- 1. Sea Anemones
- Students learn anemone anatomy, then enact anemone behaviors at high and low tide.
- 2. Making Sea Anemones
- Students design and build a paper anemone model that has retractable tentacles.
- Unit 4: Barnacles
- 1. Barnacles
- Students observe live barnacles (or a film) dry (low tide), then submerged (high tide), and draw inferences from observations.
- 2. Have or Do?
- Students are asked to distinguish between barnacle structures (“Have”) and barnacle behaviors (“Do”).
- 3. High and Dry
- Students observe the desiccation of vegetables left in a dry pan (low tide), and compare with vegetables submerged in another pan (high tide).
- 4. Drying on the Line
- Students compare the drying rate of a folded paper towel to that of an unfolded paper towel, to explore the effects of animal shape on desiccation rate.
- Unit 5: Limpets and Chitons
- 1. Limpets and Chitons
- Students observe differences between chitons and limpets, and infer the adaptive values of the differences.
- 2. Hold On
- Given an array of household items, students predict which items will be least affected by the force of waves; then test by spraying with a garden hose.
- 3. Life on the Rocks
- Students design a “holdfast” for a “limpet” (piece of sponge) and attach it to a fence. Designs are tested by throwing buckets of water on the “limpets”.
- 4. Creating Chitons
- Each student forms eight clay shell plates, and then overlaps them to form a model of a chiton.
- Unit 6: Sea Stars
- 1. Sea Stars
- Students study diagrams of sea stars that show their parts, their variety, and how they eat clams.
- 2. Sea Star Math
- Counting by fives, students add the number of total rays in a group of sea stars.
- 3. Creating Graphs
- The great variety of sea animals provides a wonderful device for introducing representational graphs.
- Unit 7: Octopus
- 1. Octopus
- Students form a “tentacle”, passing a “crab” from tentacle tip to octopus mouth, and also model octopus jet propulsion.
- 2. Octopus Changes
- Students draw an octopus using disappearing ink to model camouflage behavior.
- Unit 8: Seaweeds
- 1. Seaweeds Are Plants of the Sea
- Students compare the form and function of seaweed to land plants. For locales with seaweeds, plans are included for “sun prints” and pressed seaweeds.
- 2. Seaweed Anyone?
- Students look for algin and other seaweed derivatives on food ingredient labels to learn that they are present in many common foods, such as ice cream.
- 3. Interdependence
- Students make paper models of land and sea based food chains; then assume the roles of sun, plants and animals and link together in a food web with yarn.
- Unit 9: Tidepool Model
- 1. Papier-mâché Tidepools
- Students use their new knowledge of the sea and its life to construct a life-sized papier-mâché tidepool, populated with clay animals and plants.
- Production Credits
Below, you’ll find helpful resources for use with the above activities.
- Unit 1: Saltwater
- Activity 1 Saltwater
- Root words
- Unit 2: Hermit Crabs
- Activity 2 Observing Hermit Crabs
- Hermit crab image
- Unit 3: Sea Anemones
- Activity 1 Sea Anemones
- Sea anemone image
- Green sea anemone image
- Unit 6: Sea Stars
- Activity 1 Sea Stars
- Sea star images
- Unit 8: Seaweeds
- Activity 1 Seaweeds Are Plants of the Sea
- Rocky coast algae images
- Kelp forest image
- Unit 9: Tidepool Model
- Activity 1 Papier-mâché Tidepools
- How to find marine information
- Sample tidepool animals and plants
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