Themed lessons can be a fun way to tie school lessons together, make learning fun, and decorate your classroom at the same time. The following are some ideas for a marine theme.
Language Arts
Prepositions Under the Sea: materials needed: crayons, construction paper, scissors.
Cut out various marine creatures. Cut strips of blue construction paper (about 2 inches wide by 8 inches long) You can get about 6 strips off one sheet. Write prepositional phrases to go with each sea creature, for example: with my fin, or by a shark. You can get creative. We put a coin in one of the fish’s mouth and used in its mouth and learned about Peter paying the temple tribute with the coin he found in the fish’s mouth. We cut out fish bones and used the phrase by a shark. You can have the children create their own sea creatures, use fish from coloring books or clip art books, or art from the web. Use tape to hang the strips of paper so that each strip drapes down like a wave crest. Then hang the fish from the paper to help it drape. The idea is to make the class room look as though you are looking up at the water’s surface.
Variations: We cut out footprints to place on the ceiling when we told the story of Jesus walking on the water. You can use any subject for the waves. Multiplication facts, spelling words, memory verses, other parts of speech, names of oceans and waterways, whatever you happen to be studying.
Art
We found an under water mural at www.learningpage.com. We used it to study pointillism by coloring it with pieces of tissue paper. You could choose any art medium to decorate it. An appropriate medium would be WATER colors! Or using a sea sponge!
Experiment with textures by decorating fish with rubbings.
Make sea creatures out of clay or paper mache.
Geography and Social Studies
Learn all about the oceans of the world, the fishing industry, countries in which waterways play an important role in the economy, military use of waterways, Water transportation, Keeping the environment clean, comparing exploring the new world to space exploration, etc.
Science
Water as an energy source, water as it displays the properties of matter (solid, liquid, gas), The effect of gravity on the tide, water as it displays pressure, Ocean animals or ocean plant-life, marine environments, the water cycle, marine animal food chains, etc.
Math
Create word problems using the theme.
Ex: Joe caught 3 fish, Jimmy caught 5. How many did they catch all together?
Ex: Premier Mike Rann said the "drastic but necessary" action was taken after government monitoring revealed 19 dolphins had been trapped and killed in nets over the past five months. What is the average amount of dolphins killed per month? How many dolphins would be killed in a year?
You can make stuff up, as in the first example, or you can use actual articles, as in the second example.
Use facts about marine animals or plants to create a chart or graph. Ex: fish length or weight comparison or the cost per lb. of different fish.
You could make it easy by buying some fish stickers and affixing it to their math page.
You can make or have the kids make fish fact cards (flash cards in the shape of fish, or arrange fish on the wall with numbers like a multiplication or addition table.
Spelling
Write sentences about the sea or fish using your spelling words.
Writing
Pretend you’re a fish. . . .
Describe your first day at school.
Describe where you live or what you look like.
Describe what it would be like to get caught on a hook.
Make an All About Me (as a fish)
Use writing spurs with the ocean as a subject.
A fish bumped into an octopus and said . . .
A seagull was sitting on the water getting some sun when suddenly he saw the eye of a huge whale. . .
You have heard of Moby Dick, but have you heard of . . .
Below the sea was calm and quiet, but above the surface raged a terrible storm . . .
There is something strange about the beach today . . .
Write a poem about the sea (or whatever)
Write a letter to the editor about keeping our oceans pollution free.
Reading
Some well-known books with ocean themes:
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader- CS Lewis
20,000 Leagues under the Sea – Jules Verne
Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Key in at your local library: sea, ocean, fish, marine, pirate, ships . . .
Bible Stories
God Made the Sea—Gen. 1
Noah’s Ark—Gen. 6-8
Deliverance From the Red Sea—Exodus 13-14
Jesus Stills the Storm (asleep in the boat)—Matt. 8
The Swine Run into the Sea—Matt 8
Jesus Walks on the Sea—Matt 14
Peter gets money from a fish—Matt. 17
Paul’s Ship Wreck—Acts 27
No More Sea – Rev 21
Memory Verses
Psa 89:9-Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.
Psa 107:29-He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 93:4-The LORD on high [is] mightier than the noise of many waters, [yea, than] the mighty waves of the sea.
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