A school of fish

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Ocean Zones, Tides

When we learned about ocean zones we made these pictures with paint sample cards from the hardware store. Gus got really interested in Ocean Zones for some reason and was always playing things about "the abyss" or "the trenches."

We used some fish stickers to show which kinds of creatures live in each zone, but of course there are never stickers of the really cool animals like gulper eels! (Daisy became obsessed with gulper eels. She says they are "adorable" and she wants one as a pet.)

This may have been Junie's favorite unit of all because she loves the ocean and everything in it! She drew her own animals on her picture (including a gulper eel for Daisy).

I love all her animals (or fish, or crustaceans…you know what I mean) in color!

A perhaps not fully accurate but very well-populated ocean (by Ziggy?)

Teddy filled in his lower zones with hand-drawn pictures

Gus made this Lego truck, specially made for transporting a Blue Whale

We also made little flip-books out of 3x5 cards to show the change in the ocean during tides. The kids drew the same scene during high tide, low tide, and various stages in between. This one is Junie's. I don't know why I don't have pictures of the others?

But this one is Gussie's, with a crab on the beach and a whale (or is that a shark? I think a whale) at low tide…

…and at high tide! So good!

Monday, September 22, 2025

Ocean Unit Plan and Resources

We had a very long Ocean Unit to start out our regular year (after Summer School was over). It was really fun and just had so much variety! Here are some of the resources I used that did fit neatly with the other posts.

Jellyfish:

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/how-does-a-jellyfish-sting-ted-ed

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/bioluminescent-waves-burst-with-light-producing-plankton

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/the-mindfulness-of-jellyfish-life-cycles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huew0M1ARvw Life that Glows

Slugs, seahorses, blowfish:
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/this-jorunna-sea-slug-looks-like-a-tiny-fluffy-sea-bunny
Disney “Ocean”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAz3aIfD80k Vicious beauties
Whales:
https://www.oregonlive.com/living/2025/10/watch-oregon-family-gets-close-up-whale-encounter-off-depoe-bay-coast.html
Secrets of the Whales, Giants of the Deep Blue (Both on Disney+)

Make a water bottle submarine

https://www.imthecheftoo.com/blogs/stem-for-kids/dive-deep-into-learning-build-a-submarine-stem-activity?srsltid=AfmBOorT4QE-I_3W-tOUopN3ozcDYBJhCI1g1bMpKVnMzZJ147rX6FTe

https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/museums/psnm/education/documents/kids%20activities/BuildYourOwnSubmarine.pdf

Rays:

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/swim-with-manta-rays-the-oceans-peaceful-giants

I'm not really sure why we got so interested in clams. Maybe because we saw them in Oregon a few years ago and then also got fresh ones to make clam chowder last summer? Or maybe because they're just a thing we didn't know much about before? At any rate:

Monday, September 1, 2025

Worth Everything

Our theme for this school year (2025-26) was "Worth Everything." We talked about the worth of souls and how each individual is unique and beloved by Heavenly Father. I printed out new "Bon Mot" books for the kids (a record of their cute sayings and funny stories…I've been keeping these since they were little and many of them already have a handwritten version, but I printed them out in nicer books and added a few pictures) and talked about how each one of them adds different priceless qualities to our family. And I used the symbol of pearls to remind them of the Bible story of the man and his "pearl of great price."

The girls got single-pearl necklaces and the boys got little pearl tie pins to remind them of our theme.

We had an "afternoon tea" sort of menu, as we did last year. Chicken salad and egg salad sandwiches, quiche, scones with clotted cream and lemon curd, lemon tarts, "lemonies" (like brownies), and flourless chocolate cake bites.

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Volcanoes and types of lava

Surely every child loves to learn about volcanoes! The rice crispie volcano models are always a hit.

Stratovolcano inside

Viscosity of lava—the amount of gases each type will dissolve determines that lava's characteristics.

Frosting island chain?? Or cornstarch and water demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaKMlAawumE

Viscosity levels of lava: blowing bubbles, sliding down a slope (milk vs corn syrup)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwR64Zqov3k eruptions

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0DQ23G8NS/ref=atv_sr_fle_c_Tn74RA_14_1_14?sr=1-14&pageTypeIdSource=ASIN&pageTypeId=B0DQ25V2H7&qid=1752458813444 documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNGUdObDoLk volcanoes 101

Iceland volcano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95wvk34Pi2Q

Underwater volcano https://www.mombrite.com/underwater-volcano-experiment/

Mt. Vesuvius: https://www.howitworksdaily.com/pompeii-how-are-casts-of-the-dead-created/

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Floods, Tsunamis

Links:

Some of our previous activities: https://nielsonschool.blogspot.com/2013/12/tornadoes-hurricanes-convection.html

Make a levee in dirt https://levees.sec.usace.army.mil/levee-basics/how-levees-work/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yNoy4H2Z-o flood risk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBivwxBgdPQ why rivers move

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_ZLyzByj98 hydraulic flume—structures in rivers

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yNoy4H2Z-o coastal defenses and flood risk

Convection currents in a tub

Turbulence as the currents mix

Cold and hot water separating into layers

We got out the tornado bottles, of course.

"Underwater volcano" erupting

Monday, July 21, 2025

Natural Disasters Unit plan; Plate tectonics; Earthquakes

Our second "Summer School" unit was Natural Disasters, another perennial favorite topic among especially little boys (though my little girls have never complained about it either!). (Posts from the Old Days)

First was earthquakes, with this demonstration of plate tectonics on a molten cocoa earth (you just heat water with a layer of cocoa powder on top and then watch the convection currents break it up and move it around).