5 + 5 Activity Resource (No. 12) – 5 Independent & 5 Cooperative Learning Activities to Try (Oceans Theme)

5+5 Activity Guide (Week 12)

Welcome to this week’s 5+5 Activity Guide. Week 12 already! World Oceans Day falls on June 8th and has determined my theme for this week. As you might expect, I have oceans of ideas and resources to share with you! 😂

The press release for World Oceans Day reveals the theme of this year’s campaign.

For 2020, World Oceans Day is growing the global movement to call on world leaders to protect 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030 – a campaign called 30×30. By safeguarding a least 30% of our ocean through a network of highly protected areas we can help ensure a healthy home for both marine and human life. 

Let’s get started!

 

Independent Learning Activities

Geography

• Why not use this quiz to introduce the topic of oceans? (Source: Education World) Rather than providing the answers, the challenge is for your child to research them independently! The following resources may be helpful in doing so. It is also important to discuss with your child any questions they may have and what they would like to find out about.

 

 

• How many oceans are there?

• Use these video to learn about how oceans influence climate.

 

• What are El Niño and La Niña?

• Find many links on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to examine weather and climate and other ocean-related topics in more detail. 

• This article discusses threats to our oceans.

• Find more resources at the Schmidt Ocean Institute. 

• Having undertaken lots of research, what are your child’s thoughts on the following question?

 

 

STEM – Ocean Habitat

• Play a list game. In 5 minutes, who can create the longest list of ocean animals?

• Can anyone create an A-Z of ocean animals? 

• I have put together a free A-Z Ocean Animals PDF for you! Can your child recognise each of the animals featured? 

 

 

• • Challenge your child to create an A-Z presentation of their own. Below are some helpful references to use:

    • Animals in Oceans and Seas

    • List of Sea Animals A-Z

    • The A-Z of Weird Ocean Creatures

    • Oceans A-Z

    • Ocean Vocabulary Word List

• Take a look at these World Oceans Day posters. Can your child identify each of the animals and find out some more information about each one?

• Learn more about the ocean habitat and check out these fish on National Geographic Kids. Are they all saltwater fish? 

• Alternatively, use this comprehensive Marine Life Encyclopedia to learn more about underwater life.

• Has your child seen any of these 35 Utterly Weird Sea Animals before?

• Investigate ocean animals using these resources from Home Science Tools.

• Explore Ocean Habitats and Animal Adaptations.

• Try this experiment to learn how sonar works.

• The Oceanography Society also has lots of resources links, e.g., Sounds of the Sea and Aquarium Online Academy. 

• Find five categories of learning resources (oceans, waves and currents marine animals and adaptations, ocean conservation, and ocean-related science, technology, and careers on Beyond Penguins.

 

English Reading/Comprehension

• Have your child read this Life in the Ocean reading comprehension and answer the accompanying questions.

• Teachnology offers this Oceans comprehension and question task.

• Find this Why does the Ocean have Waves? comprehension and questions activity on Studocu.

• Read about ocean myths in this article, The Atlantis-style Myths that Turned out to be True.

 

Project-Based Learning – Research and Writing Prompts

Use these resources to learn about exploration in the past and to prompt various types of writing.

• Stories from the sea: Exploration

• Stories from the sea: Shipwrecks

 

Just for Fun – Puzzles and Games

• Under the Sea Crossword

• Crab Maze

• Deep Sea Diver Maze

• Ocean Word Search

• Encourage your child to use their ocean-related vocabulary and create their own word search here.

 

Cooperative Learning Activities

English – Oral Language

What am I?

Ask you child/children to select one of the animals from our free Ocean Animals PDF and investigate the animal, finding out some facts and information about them. You can use the links in the STEM section to find reference materials. For example, consider:

• What part of the ocean do they live in (near the surface, near the bottom, in a coral reef )?

• What are their favorite things to eat (plants or animals)?

• What animals are their predators (animals that might want to eat you)?

• Are any animals their prey (what do you like to eat)?

• What kind of shelter or protection do they like to have?

• Do it use camouflage to protect itself?

• How does it move around?

• What do they look like?

• Do they have arms, fins, or tentacles? How many?

• What kind of covering do they have on their body (scales, fur, skin)?

*Questions adapted from Home Science Tools.

Turn this into an oral language activity by interviewing your child/having one child interview another (using the questions above). Can they guess the animal in question? Swap roles so that your child then has a turn at being the interviewer while you/another child choose an animal and research it.

 

History

Encourage you child to find out about a famous sea-faring explorer and create a presentation to share the rest of the family. You can find biographies of explorers on:

• Ducksters

• Explorers

It is important to critically examine and discuss the impact of the actions of explorers. We often have quite a narrow perspective on history. Some articles you may wish to read include:

• Ocean Exploration Changed Human History—And the Story Started Centuries Before Christopher Columbus

• What is colonialism?

 

Art

• Darrell Wakelam has created a new challenge on Twitter. Search for #ArtGoldMine. The idea is Darrell starts children off with an idea and they are then charged with using their imagination and creativity to continue it. Find his Ocean-inspired art and design challenge here. 

• Alternatively, select from these 15 Crafts for Kids

• Here are another 15 Ocean-themed options for play, learning, art and cooking!

 

Early  Years

Try some of these activities with the younger members of your household:

• 27 Ocean Activities for Kids

• Preschool Ocean Theme Activities

• 40+ Ocean Theme Activities for Preschool

• 21 Best Ocean Activities and Ocean Crafts (includes a free ocean activities download)

• 15+ Ocean Activities for Pre-K

• Find links to 75+ Ocean Activities here

 

CardEd

• If you read last week’s post, you will know I have decided to upload CardEd Daily Challenges instead of posting a weekly one. You can find them on the CardEd Daily Challenge section of our website as well as on our Instagram page.

 

 

There you have it – this week’s 5+5 Ocean-themed Activity Guide is complete! Let us know if you try any of these lessons at home and how your child/ren respond/s.

 

Don’t forget to download your Ocean Animals A-Z!

 

 

 

Take care and stay safe!