Learning About the Letter U and Under the Sea

We are still having fun talking about our recent trip to the Newport Aquarium. Introducing the letter U using the under the sea theme was a perfect extension to our fun day visiting the sharks and other great under the sea creatures! 

Books: What Do You See Under the Sea? By Bobbie Kalman 

It Could Still Be Coral By: Allan Fowler

Under the Sea By: Dr. Frank H Talbot

I Spy Under the Sea By: Edward Gibbs

Shells! Shells! Shells! By: Nancy Wallace 

Let's Look at Opposites By: Nicola Tuxworth 

 

To start off the week,we answered the question,"What lives under the sea?" Both Ava and Dominic had some great ideas and had fun remembering what we had seen at the aquarium.

This week we practiced using directional words such as near, beside, between, under, over, behind, etc..  I gave the kids sea creatures. They had to listen to the directional words and put them in the correct arrangement. We also spent some time reviewing opposites such as under/over, near/ far, sink/float, etc... 

The kids had fun creating their own under the sea habitats. They started by  finger painting to create the water. I showed them how to use their fingers to make waves in the paint.   

I printed out sea animal clipart. Ava colored and cut her own. She used beans for the sand/rocks and  Easter grass for the seaweed. 

Our sensory table this week was an ocean theme. I added plastic sea animals and gems (we pretended they were rocks and coral reef) to some water. This activity was a hit. It practically looked like the kids had gone swimming once they finished playing in it each day. I am glad the table is in the basement, because we would have had some really wet floors!  Even Lilly joined in the sensory activity for the first time and loved it! 

One of the math activities this week involved Ava counting bubbles and matching each numbered fish to the correct amount of bubbles. We worked on counting and recognizing numbers 1-20. 

Ava went deep sea fishing for rhymes. She had to fish for a picture, say its name, and find a picture on her rhyming mat that it rhymed with. 

We spent some time talking about the concept of sink and float. Before testing if the objects would sink or float, we made predictions about the outcome of each object. 

We tested our predictions.Our foam letter U floated just like we thought! But, we were surprised that our mega block sank to the bottom. 

This fun shark project idea came from the blog Almost Unschoolers. Dominic is making his scary shark face!  

Ava decided to make her shark differently and said her shark was nice. I liked how she made it her own creation! 

Ava practicing writing the letter U

Our language arts project for the week was scrapbooking our pictures from our visit to the aquarium. It's not completed yet, but coming a long and the kids are having fun with it. Ava has been working hard to label the pictures and decorate the pages. Dominic has been enjoying decorating the pages too! 

I found this free sea animal measuring activity at Peterson's Pad. Using foam cubes (found at the Dollar Tree), Ava had to determine the length of each sea animal. She then recorded her findings.  She took this activity very seriously and kept saying, "this is fun"! I have been wanting to do more with measuring with her. This activity was a good introduction.

We'll be moving onto the letter V next week. Plans are still in progress, but I do know the week will include building our own volcano!