Ocean Unit Celebration

I told the kids we absolutely did not have time for an Ocean Unit Celebration. "Going to the aquarium was our celebration," I told them.

"We have to have a celebration!" they said. "We have time tonight, if we hurry! We will help!" And they did.

We looked on pinterest and found some ocean-themed ideas. Clementine crabs are cute!

Nilla Wafer Oysters

Junie made deep ocean jello (do you like how it gets darker as it gets deeper? And that's ice on top. This is the Antarctic Ocean).

Did you know Walmart has penguin crackers as well as goldfish crackers? They're cute!

Gummy sharks

Daisy made these sweet pepper octopuses

Goldie made sand-dollar cookies

And we made this coral-reef scene with various vegetables

So it turned out to be a pretty fun celebration after all!

Aquarium one-point perspective drawings

Before we went to the Aquarium, we combined all our new fish and ocean animal knowledge with the one-point perspective drawing Sam taught us. We drew pictures of those clear shark tunnels you always see in aquariums (aquaria?), as shown in this post. It was fun to see how the kids interpreted this project. Some of them took the line-drawing very seriously and used rulers and measured everything meticulously. Others (Junie) threw out the assignment altogether and did something new!

Sea Monsters by Ziggy!

Gus drew the cutest little creatures, and a happy person watching them! That last little guy is a squid.

Teddy's aquarium tunnel

This is what Junie drew instead…a lovely ocean scene

Goldie's aquarium tunnel (so many good and varied animals in this picture!)

Daisy's tunnel (note the Gulper Eel…and I love the underside view of the shark)

Aquarium Field Trip

 

We used some of our school funds to get a membership to the Aquarium this year, and I'm sorry to say, we don't really love it. I mean—we do like the Aquarium. It's fun to go to…occasionally. But it's just always full of SUCH loud and rowdy schoolkids. And there are exhibits closed all the time. And it just doesn't feel like even close to such a good value as our Thanksgiving Point Membership, which we love. (There are just so many more things to do at Thanksgiving Point! More variety! And it only costs half the amount! Also, it annoys me that the Aquarium "family" membership only includes four kids. The Thanksgiving Point membership includes any number of children living at home!)

However, with all those complaints, we have made good use of our membership nonetheless! It was good timing because we were studying Oceans all through the Fall. And there is a Caw for Gus! (There are supposed to be two Caws…but there is only ever one. Did one die and they just aren't telling people?!?😱) And, of course, there are penguins, which we love.

The kids also like the gift shop! Not for buying things, of course. Just for hugging them and taking pictures.

Ziggy did use birthday money from Grandma to actually buy something. This weird shark blaster. The batteries lasted all of two days. But he sure enjoyed it!