Many times in kindergarten, teaching science topics can be hard to convert into kid-friendly, so we as teachers tend to rely heavily on picture books and a few specific aspects of the topic at hand. As an example, when teaching about the Arctic, we might read Tacky the Penguin and a non-fiction reader about penguins and then do a “can, have, are” writing activity. “Have, can, and are” lessons are great and I do them often, but the Arctic has many things to learn about besides just penguins; there are hundreds of animals, aspects of life on the Arctic, the geographical locations and landforms, etc. One thing I have been realizing as a teacher myself is that it is important to engage children in all aspects of something I am teaching, not just a few. So when I decided to make my own “oceans unit,” I wanted to teach the children more about the ocean as a whole than, for instance, just a lesson about sharks or dolphins through a story and graphic organizer. I wanted them to have a unit that would have them understanding the ocean and all the unique and interesting qualities through scientific thinking.
When creating my ocean unit, I thought first about the objectives I wanted to have for after the completion of the unit. Then I broke it down into objectives for each lesson. I came up with these lesson:
The children begin by learning about the five oceans and some information about the make-up of oceans and characteristics.
They also learn about the ocean zones and the animals that are found there.
Learning about coral reefs and pollution allow them to understand how they can help the cause of saving the ocean.
Click on the picture to buy my 10 lesson ocean unit on TpT! :)
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